Performance assessment and degradation analysis of solar photovoltaic technologies: A review

Abstract

United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals to ensure prosperity, reduction of poverty and mitigation of climate change. Energy is a part of these goals. Today, energy demand heavily relies on the fossil fuel sources: petroleum, natural gas, coal etc., which causes greenhouse gas emission and environmental deterioration. In order to avoid environmental impacts, current energy systems need to transform into clean and renewable sources of energy systems. Deployment of solar energy, an omnipresent renewable energy source, is gaining popularity due to the easiness of installation, availability and competitive cost. For effective utilization and higher penetration of solar energy, knowledge about technology and performance of solar energy system is required. In this paper, different solar photovoltaic (SPV) technology and mathematical modeling to characterize the SPV systems are comprehensively presented. The performance analysis on the basis of standard parameters like performance ratio, yield energy, reference energy, capacity utilization factor etc. and on the basis of exergy as well as energy efficiency are also presented. Variation in environmental conditions significantly affects the outdoor performance and operation of SPV systems. Therefore, study of degradation and failure modes is important for accurate prediction of performance of SPV systems and has been discussed.