Abstract
The performances of three different types of photovoltaic (PV) module technologies namely, copper-indium-diselenide (CIGS), mono-crystalline silicon (mo-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) have been comparatively studied in the grid-connected system for more than a year under the tropical monsoon climate of Thailand. The yields, performance ratios and system efficiencies for the respective PV module technologies have been calculated and a comparison is presented here. The performance ratios of the initial operation year for CIGS showed highest among the compared technologies under Thailand climate conditions by marking 97.0% while 89.6% for a-Si and 81.5% for mo-Si. Although mo-Si has shown highest efficiencies all over the period, under the testing conditions, the operating efficiency of mo-Si was down-graded from its reference value mainly due to high operating temperature and the efficiency of the tested CIGS module was also found as high as that of mo-Si in the study. Accordingly, outdoor assessment shows that CIGS modules have demonstrated high performance in terms of yields and performance ratios in Thailand climate conditions.