Grid connected monocrytalline and polycrystalline photovoltaic system: A comparative study on performance

Performance indicator is important as a comparison for improvement in any form of technology. It provides the direction for technology improvement. For photovoltaic system, the normal indicator for performance is the performance ratio while for the solar cells, the cell efficiency is normally being used. This paper will analyze the use of performance ratio as a performance indicator for a system. The analysis and discussion will provide the rationale for using performance ratio as an indicator for photovoltaic performance but performance ratio alone is not good enough. For the period of one year from April 2012 to March 2013, the performance ratio for monocrystalline was 77% while for polycrystalline was found to be 80%. Solar cell efficiency was found to be 11.8% for monocrystalline and polycrystalline to be 11.5%. Higher performance ratio just indicates the energy yield compared to the expected energy yield.