Performance evaluation of photovoltaic panel technologies using a designed multi-photovoltaic panel power measurement system

This thesis presents a new multi-Photovoltaic Panel Measurement and Analysis System (PPMAS) developed to measure atmospheric parameters and generated power of photovoltaic (PV) panels. The designed system presented with an experimental study evaluates the performance of four new and four old PV panel technologies, which are based on PolyCrystalline (Poly), MonoCrystalline (Mono), Copper Indium Selenide (CIS), and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) in real-time, under same atmospheric conditions. The PPMAS system is installed in Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara Province, in Turkey. The designed PPMAS consists of three different sub-systems which are 1) Photovoltaic Panel Measurement sub-system (PPMS), 2) Meteorology measurement sub-system (MMS), and 3) Data acquisition sub-system (DAS). PPMS is used to measure the power generation for PV panels. MMS involves different sensors, and it is designed to determine atmospheric conditions, including wind speed, wind direction, outdoor temperature, humidity, ambient light, and panel temperatures. The measured values by PPMS and MMS are stored in a database using the DAS sub-system. In order to improve the measurement accuracy, PPMS and MMS are calibrated. This study also focuses on outdoor testing performances of four new and four old PV panels. Average monthly panel efficiencies are estimated as 8.46, 8.11, 5.65, and 3.88 in percentage, for new Mono, new Poly, new CIS, and new CdTe PV panels, respectively. Moreover, the average monthly panel efficiencies of old panels are calculated as 8.22, 7.85, 5.35, and 3.63 in percentage, in the same order. Test results obtained from the experimental system are also statistically examined and discussed to analyze the performance of PV panels in terms of monthly panel efficiencies.