Performance results and analysis of 3 kW grid-connected PV systems

Four 3kW grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) generation systems have been installed and monitored at the Field Demonstration Test Center in Korea since October 2002. To observe the overall effect of meteorological conditions on their operation characteristics by field test, the monitoring system has been constructed for measuring and analyzing the performance of PV systems and components in November 2002. In this paper, the performance of PV systems is evaluated and analyzed not only for component perspective but also for global perspective by reviewing one year of monitoring results and loss factors of PV systems. On the basis of these monitoring results, the performance of PV systems is compared to the measured performance of PV systems with the estimated performance by simulation. These results will indicate that it is highly imperative to develop evaluation, analysis and application technology for PV systems. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.