Evaluation of spectrally distributed irradiance in the Netherlands regarding the energy performance of various PV technologies

In this study 1-minute measurements of spectrally distributed irradiance in the Netherlands are evaluated by investigating the Average Photon Energy (APE). The measured data are combined with spectral response curves of various photovoltaic (PV) technologies such as c-Si, mc-Si, CdTe, CIGS, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) and polymer organic solar cells (OSC) to obtain energy yields in kWh/m2 on a daily, monthly and a yearly time scale. The incident spectra attenuate due to varying air mass, precipitable water and aerosol optical depth. Results show that in the Netherlands the spectra hold higher energy content in the summer in comparison to the winter. The APE changes in a quadratic manner over the season and has a peak in July. On average the APE is in between 1.80 and 1.93 eV. Blue shifted spectra occur in the summer. Organic solar cells - DSC and OSC - have a unique behavior toward spectral variation. An evaluation of their spectral performance based on the Spectral Factor (SF) shows that organic solar cells yield the highest spectral gain compared to the other PV technologies with a SF of 1.01 compared to a SF of 0.966 of c-Si.