Performance comparison of mono and polycrystalline silicon solar photovoltaic modules under tropical wet and dry climatic conditions in east-central India

This work focuses on the performance comparison of monocrystalline and polycrystalline Si solar photovoltaic(SPV)modules under tropical wet and dry climatic conditions in east-central India(21.16°N 81.65°E,Raipur,Chhattisgarh).This study would help to select the SPV module for system installation in the east-central part of the country.For comparative analysis,we used performance ratio(PR)and efficiency as figures of merit.The plane-of-array(POA)irradiance was used to determine the efficiency of the modules.The decomposition and transposition models calculated the POA values from the measured global horizontal irradiance.The data were analysed systematically for 6 months in the non-rainy season,from October 2020 to March 2021.Special attention was given to solar irradiance,ambient temperature and module temperature-the parameters that affect the performance of PV modules.The month of October showed the highest variation in irradiance and temperature.The highest average module temperatures(51-52℃)were observed in October-November,while the lowest average module temperatures(34℃ for mono-Si and 36℃ for poly-Si)were observed in December.The highest value of average monthly POA irradiance(568 W/m^(2))was observed in February and the lowest(483 W/m^(2))in December.The results showed that the monocrystalline SPV module performed better than the polycrystalline module under all weather conditions.The maximum observed values of mono-Si and poly-Si panel PRs were 0.89 and 0.86,respectively,in December.