Experimental comparison between Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline, and Thin-film solar systems under sunny climatic conditions

Solar photovoltaic (PV) is the fastest growing renewable energy technology in terms of installed capacity worldwide. Since there are different PV technologies available, a reliable long-term evaluation of these technologies under actual operation conditions would be very helpful and valuable for further development and deployment of this technology. This study presents the performance indicators for about six years of operation for a solar field that consists of five different solar systems (around 5 kW each), these systems are Monocrystalline East/West, Monocrystalline South, Polycrystalline South, Polycrystalline East/West, and Thin-film system oriented toward the south. These systems are installed at the Applied Science Private University (ASU), Amman, Jordan. The key performance indicators investigated are the performance ratio (PR), specific yield, and system efficiency (EFF). The highest efficiency was achieved by the Mono South system, and the lowest efficiency of 7% was recorded for the thin film south system. Similarly, the highest performance ratio was obtained by the Mono south system, while the lowest was for the Poly E/W system. The highest specific yield with respect to the installed capacity (kWh/kWp) was achieved by the Thin-film south system, while the lowest was obtained by the Poly south system. These results are supposed to guide not only solar PV project developers but also policymakers in the selection and implementation of suitable PV technology for a given region. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Solar photovoltaic (PV) is the fastest growing renewable energy technology in terms of installed capacity worldwide. A study conducted on a solar field in Jordan for six years found that different PV technologies have varying performance indicators, with the Mono South system achieving the highest efficiency and the Thin-film south system recording the lowest efficiency.