Effects of Temperature A practical field study of various solar cells on their performance in Malaysia

Results show that mono-crystalline silicon and multi-crystalline silicon solar module perform better when they are under hot sun, whereas the CIS and triple junction amorphous silicon solar panel perform better when it is cloudy and has diffused sunshine.

Furthermore, the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar panel has been found to drop when the temperature rises higher. This phenomenon does not appear in the CIS and amorphous silicon solar panels, which shows that the performance of CIS and amorphous silicon solar cells are better in terms of power conversion efficiency and overall performance ratio. Mono-crystalline silicon solar cell performs poorly in low light condition.

The amorphous silicon solar module does not show any drop in output power although the module temperature is high. This shows that the amorphous silicon solar cells can withstand the heat better compared to the bulk silicon solar cells. Amorphous silicon solar modules temperature is also found to be lower due to the larger module size. Larger module size makes the heat dissipation better and thus the solar module is cooler that the other solar module.

The output power of the CIS solar module is almost un-affected by the increasing module temperature. In fact, the power output is at peaks when the module temperature is the highest. As expected the mono-crystalline silicon solar modules efficiency is the highest, followed by the multicrystalline silicon type. Crystalline silicon solar cell is well known for their high cell efficiency, therefore they are expected to have higher efficiency if compared to the thin film technology. CIS solar module used in the field study has shown higher module efficiency compared to the amorphous silicon solar module. This is also expected since both solar cells are categorized under the thin film technology, with CIS solar cells having higher efficiency under the Standard Test Conditions. Therefore under the field conditions, the CIS solar module is expected to have higher efficiency value compared to amorphous silicon solar module.
EFFECT OF AMBIENT TEMPERATURE ON THE DEMANDED

Effect of ambient temperature on the demanded energy of solar cells at different inclinations
A solar module type AEGPQS/40/0 shows a decreasing in Pmax of about 0.44% in p.u. of ideal Pmax for each lc above 25 c, then at cell temperature (Tc) equal to 70 c, such solar module type lose about 20% of the specified Pmax, which is eventually affecting the energy balance of PV systems.

Photovoltaic solar cells performance at elevated temperatures

At normal conditions (no light concentration, T 300 K), the efficiency of the cell is g 18:4%, which diminishes to 4.4% for T 500 K. If one wants to get efficiency over 10%, it could be achieved for the temperatures less than 410 K. Main conclusion from both theoretical and experimental study is that certain types of solar cells can operate at relatively high temperatures (100170 _C) without drastic loss at their efficiency.