Degradation Rate Location Dependency of Photovoltaic Systems

Alexander Frick, George Makrides, Markus Schubert, Matthias Schlecht and George E. Georghiou
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Alexander Frick: Institute for Photovoltaics and Research Center SCoPE, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
George Makrides: PV Technology Laboratory, FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Markus Schubert: Institute for Photovoltaics and Research Center SCoPE, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Matthias Schlecht: Institute for Photovoltaics and Research Center SCoPE, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
George E. Georghiou: PV Technology Laboratory, FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-20

Abstract: A main challenge towards ensuring improved lifetime performance and reduction of financial risks of photovoltaic (PV) technologies remains the accurate degradation quantification of field systems and the dependency of this performance loss rate to climatic conditions. The purpose of this study is to address these technological issues by presenting a unified methodology for accurately calculating the degradation rate ( R D ) of PV systems and provide evidence that degradation mechanisms are location dependent. The method followed included the application of data inference and time series analytics, in the scope of comparing the long-term R D of different crystalline Silicon (c-Si) PV systems, installed at different climatic locations. The application of data quality and filtering steps ensured data fidelity for the R D analysis. The yearly R D results demonstrated that the adopted time series analytical techniques converged after 7 years and were in close agreement to the degradation results obtained from indoor standardized procedures. Finally, the initial hypothesis that the R D is location dependent was verified, since the multicrystalline silicon (multi-c-Si) systems at the warm climatic region exhibited higher degradation compared to the respective systems at the moderate climate. For the investigated monocrystalline silicon (mono-c-Si) systems the location-dependency is also affected by the manufacturing technology.

Keywords: degradation; location dependency; photovoltaic; statistical analysis; time series; weathering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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