Predicting the energy yield of a photovoltaic system from an individual photovoltaic module

Abstract

In this study, energy yield of a photovoltaic (PV) system is predicted from the output peak power of an individual PV module. Measured energy yield of an individual back contact single crystalline silicon PV module is scaled with total number of PV module within the PV array to calculate the energy yield. Regarding the conversion efficiency of the inverter in the PV system, calculated and measured energy yield of PV system were compared for selected dates. To confirm the accuracy of the proposed model, days with clear and cloudy irradiation profile were selected from August and November. The difference between calculated and measured energy yield of PV array were found to be insignificant. Thus, current method which is straightforward, feasible and reliable to predict the energy yield of PV array using just an individual PV module. (C) 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim