Estimating the sensitivity of energy performance from optimising different PV technologies world wide

A new simulation program “PV TESTER” has been developed to study the sensitivity of predicted AC Energy yield and kWh/kWp to PV module performance parameter changes, uncertainties or variabilities. This paper studies four PV technologies at 12 weather sites worldwide with 13 different input changes. PV Tester allows quantitative estimates of the yield improvement to be made with respect to site parameters such as total insolation, average module temperature and consecutive dry days. Using the value of the cost of process improvements or the variability in performance will allow the cost benefits or uncertainty of c/kWh to be estimated.