Assessment of PV cell performance under actual Malaysia operating condition

The optimal utilization of solar modules technologies in different climates is of major economical important. In many locations, the solar modules are often utilized non-economically because of lack of solar radiation and climatologically data. This paper presents a simulation result on the PV system using two prediction tools; RETScreen and PVSYST for the grid-connected system by assessing four different PV technologies; mono-crystalline, polycrystalline, amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride. The average monthly solar radiation and the mean ambient temperature data from Malaysia Meteorological Services Department are adopted. The finding indicates that higher module efficiency used less collector area of the PV modules (arrays) and hence less support structure to build for the system. Mono-crystalline and polycrystalline give higher returns of annual energy yields with high investment cost whereas amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride give less annual yield with lower investment cost. Comparatively the energy production cost per kWh indicates that amorphous Silicon and cadmium telluride give the lowest rate.