TY - JOUR
TI - An experimental investigation of performance of photovoltaic modules in Pakistan
AU - Bashir Muhammad Anser
AU - Ali Hafiz Muhammad
AU - Ali Muzaffar
AU - Siddiqui Aysha Maryam
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2015
VL - 19
IS - 12
SP - 525
EP - 534
PT - Article
AB - An outdoor experimental study was carried out to investigate and compare the  performance of three commercially available photovoltaic modules  (monocrystalline, polycrystalline and single junction amorphous silicon)  under the weather of Pakistan for the month of January. Power output  efficiency, module efficiency, and performance ratio are calculated for each  module and comparison is presented. Results have shown that mono-crystalline  and poly-crystalline modules perform better at high irradiance and show poor  performance in low irradiance conditions. Amorphous solar module has shown  better light absorption characteristic and performs better in low irradiance  i.e. in cloudy and diffuse sunshine conditions. Monocrystalline photovoltaic  module is found to be more efficient, having module efficiency of 13.5% which  is higher than the other two modules. Furthermore the power output of  mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline modules has shown a higher decrement at  higher module temperatures compared to the amorphous solar module. Because of  better performance in low solar irradiance, amorphous solar module has shown  monthly average performance ratio of 1.07 which is higher than other  photovoltaic modules under study.