Comparative analysis of four different solar photovoltaic technologies

Abstract

A comparative analysis of performance of different solar photovoltaic technologies at Hamirpur Himachal Pradesh, India is presented in this study. Hamirpur receives an average of 4.3 sunshine hours each day over the year. The average temperature ranges between 14°C to 34°C. Four different solar photovoltaic technologies (mono crystalline, polycrystalline, amorphous silicon and CIS) of 10kW each, are considered. Simulation is performed using PVsyst software (version 5.14). Solar resource used in simulation is a real time measured data at Hamirpur for 2013. The annual & monthly performance ratio (PR) are calculated for different modules and a comparison is presented. The cost analysis is done to compare the feasibility of module technology for the considered location. Results show that CIS technology performs considerably better than other three technologies in terms of energy output, performance ratio, capacity factor and economics.