Twenty-first International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

The focus on growing renewable resources has become one of the essential approaches to overcome the scarcity of electricity after the depletion of fossil fuels and to lessen atmospheric difficulties due to the usage of conventional fuels. This research paper investigated the effect of different solar photovoltaic (PV) module technologies on the performance of a solar PV system. Comparative analysis of four technologies namely, Cadmium telluride (CdTe), Copper indium selenium (CIS), Monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar PV modules is performed for a 432 kW grid-connected rooftop solar PV system installed at an academic building in Delhi. The longitude and latitude of the location are 28.7 degrees N and 77.1 degrees E. The system performance is analyzed and recorded using PVsyst software. The energy produced through the CdTe, CIS, monocrystalline and polycrystalline modules is 742.2, 723, 726.9 and 718.8 MWh/year respectively. Results show that the CdTe solar PV modules produce more energy as compared to the other three modules. The performance ratio is highest for the CdTe solar PV module i.e., 85.42% and lowest for the polycrystalline solar PV module i.e., 82.72%. The system with CdTe modules mitigates the highest amount of CO2 emissions (17170.328 tonnes), whereas the system with polycrystalline modules reduces the lowest amount of CO2 emissions (16600.325 tonnes). There is no significant difference in the performance of CIS and monocrystalline solar PV modules are seen. This study helps researchers to find out the most suitable solar PV module technology for different applications of solar energy.