This study presents for the first time the spectral impact on the performance of different photovoltaic (PV) technologies in Lima, Peru. We experimentally monitored the spectral distributions over one year (March 2019–February 2020). The average photon energy (APE) is calculated as a representative parameter to evaluate the spectral distributions. The spectral mismatch factor (MM) enables an estimation of the spectral gains of distinct PV technologies: amorphous silicon (a-Si), perovskite, cadmium telluride (CdTe), multicrystalline silicon (multi-Si), monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si) and copper indium gallium selenide with two distinct band-gaps (CIGS-1 and CIGS-2). We found that the annual APE has a value of 1.923 eV, indicating that the spectrum is shifted to shorter wavelengths. In contrast to studies performed in other locations, the spectral distribution shows relatively small mo...

This work presents the firsts results of the experimental characterization campaign under outdoor conditions carried out with three different photovoltaic (PV) module technologies: Standard poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si) aluminum back surface field (Al-BSF) cells, mono-crystalline (c-Si) Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-Layer (HIT) cells, and amorphous and microcrystalline silicon (a-Si/µc-Si) thin-film tandem cells. We studied the behavior of these PV technologies and their performance in Lima's desertic and coastal climate during the period from May 2019 to July 2019. For this study, a new outdoor-PV laboratory was implemented at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) with the help of the IDEA research group of the University of Jaén (UJA), Spain. The laboratory enables the characterization of PV modules by extracting the electrical parameters from the current-vo...

Surface passivation is a widely used technique to reduce the recombination losses at the semiconductor surface. The passivating layer performance can be mainly characterized by two parameters: The fixed charge density (Q(ox)) and the interface trap density (D-it) which can be extracted from Capacitance-Voltage measurements (CV). In this paper, simulations of High-Frequency Capacitance-Voltage (HF-CV) curves were developed using simulated passivation parameters in order to examine the reliability of measured results. The D-it was modelled by two different sets of functions: First, the sum of Gaussian functions representing different dangling bond types and exponential tails for strained bonds. Second, a simpler U-shape model represented by the sum of exponential tails and a constant value function was employed. These simulations were validated using experimental measurements of a referenc...

This article presents the benefits of two simple analytical models for estimating the outdoor performance of three different photovoltaic technologies in Lima, Peru. The Osterwald and the constant fill factor models are implemented to estimate the maximum power delivered by three photovoltaic module technologies: aluminum back surface field, heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer and amorphous/microcrystalline thin-film tandem. A 12-months experimental campaign is carried out through measurements of current-voltage curves, irradiance and module temperature. The results show that both models overestimate the modelled power when compared to the measured one. In order to correct the maximum power predicted by both models, a correction factor is introduced. This correction factor allows us to estimate losses and a respective effective nominal power to minimize the prediction error on a mon...

Monitoring photovoltaic (PV) systems is necessary to assure their proper functioning. Mostly automated data acquisition systems (DAQ) are used for this purpose. Obtained data from DAQ are important for analysing the energy behavior of PV systems with any anomalies that may appear. It helps investors to realize economic calculations which use to estimate the return on investment. The article aims to present an open-source system that allows the acquisition and reliable recording of meteorological parameters that influence in the energy production of PV installations. The measurement processes were tested by different methods in order to comply with the standards of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). © 2021 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

The characterization of the nominal power under real operating conditions is crucial for the correct evaluation of a photovoltaic generator. Several earlier studies proposed different methods based on empirical models for the estimation of the nominal power. These methods require experimental data obtained during optimal days under clear sky conditions and are not suitable for days deviating from these optimal conditions and, thus, generating a significant amount of noise in the data. In this sense, we propose a non-parametric statistical approach to filter out this noise to reliably estimate the real nominal power in the latter conditions. The period of study was 107 days. These were divided in two categories, clear and partly cloudy sky conditions. The results show that our statistical method allows to obtain the same nominal power under partly cloudy conditions as under clear sky. Thi...