Performance analysis of a grid connected micromorphous silicon PV pilot plant after eight months monitoring

Abstract

This paper presents an eight months follow up of 2.3Kwp micromorphous PV plant installed on a building facade at UDES located at Bou-Ismail (latitude 36°38 N, longitude 2°41 E) near the Mediterranean sea in the north of Algeria. The PV system was monitored during the period March–October 2013. All the electricity generated was fed into the local low voltage network to supply a building. The PV system was evaluated using the performance factors such as array yield, reference yield, final yield, array capture losses, system losses, inverter efficiency and performance ratio according to the standard IEC 61724. The total energy generated during the monitoring period was 274kWh/kWp while the average daily final yield, reference yield and array yield were 2.41kWh/kWp/day, 2.85kWh/kWp/day and 2.62kWh/kWp/day respectively. The average daily Photovoltaic array efficiency, system efficiency and inverter efficiency were 3.5%, 3.2% and 96% respectively. The average daily capture and system losses are 2.15h/day and 0.064h/day respectively. Although, the first results show that the PV plant seems to correctly functioning during the monitoring period, however, some instabilities of the network and some errors in the data acquisition process have altered the performance of the PV system.