PV Systems in Warm and Sunny Climates: Performance Assessment of Commercially Available Solar Photovoltaic Technologies under Different Climatic Conditions in the Brazilian Energy Mix

The performance assessment of seven different, commercially-available PV technologies was carried out at eight different climates in Brazil. The eight identical, fully-monitored 70 kWp photovoltaic Evaluation Sites (ESs) have all electrical and environmental parameters measured at one-second intervals. The R&D project, funded by twelve Brazilian Electric Utilities in the scope of the Brazilian National Regulatory Agency's R&D Program, aims at providing performance information for Utilities to make informed decisions on which PV technology to adopt in the forthcoming utility-scale solar energy auctions taking place in Brazil. The PV technologies evaluated are: thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si), microcrystalline silicon (a-Si/mu c-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and bulk mono and multi-crystalline silicon (c-Si and m-Si), all at fixed, latitude tilt, as well as double-axis tracking, concentrated PV (CPV) using InGap/GaAs/Ge at 820 suns concentration.