A novel climate classification criterion based on the performance of solar photovoltaic technologies

The response of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies with respect to environmental parameters is governed by the physical and chemical properties of the PV material. The PV modules are being tested under standard test conditions (STC), however, these conditions are hardly available in real operating conditions, of the locations where the PV modules are supposed to be operational. Therefore, the performance of PV power plant varies with the environmental conditions of the location and technology of the PV module. In this paper, seven climatic zones have been proposed for India, based on the annual daytime irradiance and ambient temperature specifically for the deployment of PV system. A novel methodology has been proposed in order to identify the most efficient PV technology for a particular climatic zone. The parametric study of efficiency for four different technologies i.e. multi- crystalline silicon (m-Si), amorphous silicon (a-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe), and hetero junction intrinsic thin film (HIT), has also been evaluated with respect to the irradiance and ambient temperature based on the indoor measurements. The m-Si PV technology is found to be most efficient in all the irradiance range, while CdTe technology has the lowest impact of temperature with high efficiency at lower irradiance range. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.