Performance Comparison of three PV Technologies under the Effect of Partial Shading and Varying Tilt Angles

Abstract

Photovoltaics is widely used in industries as well as in households. Accordingly, the efficiency of the system should be assessed under various conditions to minimize energy wastage. This paper aims to present the experimental performance of three different PV technologies under the effect of partial shading and varying tilt angles using a MOSFET based current-voltage (I-V) tracing method. PV technologies: Polycrystalline, Amorphous Silicon and Copper Indium Selenide were used on small scale to perform the experiments. Various shading scenarios were utilized to represent distinct shading conditions. During the second test the impact on the output power of the three PV technologies was determined using varying tilts. The three parameters which were measured during the tests were: current, voltage and temperature. The voltage was measured through the direct connection method and the current was measured using a Hall-Effect current sensor. The temperature was measured using the LM35 sensor. All the data from the I-V tracer and the sensor were acquired using National Instrument myDAQ and the LabVIEW platform was used for display. For partial shading, the results showed that the output current is more affected than the voltage under the surrounding conditions which were irradiance and temperature. Moreover, it was observed that non-uniform shading of solar cells cause significant power output degradation in comparison to uniform shading. To distinguish between the technologies, it was deduced that thin film modules operate more efficiently than crystalline modules under shading condition. In addition, all technologies produced maximum power at a tilt angle of 20° optimal. Finally, the results showed that there was less power loss from the crystalline modules as compared to the thin film modules from angles other than the optimum one.