Mapping of most frequent operating condition of photovoltaic module across India

The performance of photovoltaic (PV) module is mainly influenced by in-plane irradiance and module temperature parameters. At any site, variations of in-plane irradiance and module temperature depends on local weather parameters and these weather parameters vary significantly over large geographical area. The most frequently occurred value of in-plane irradiance and module temperature has major contribution in energy generation. In this manner, calculation of performance ratio (PR) based on most frequent operating condition (MFOC) will give an accurate indication of performance under local climatic conditions. Thus, estimation of MFOC is important and its mapping over a large geographical area will be useful for PV systems performance assessment. The objective of present study is to map MFOC of PV module across India. For this purpose, a new scheme of climate classification has been developed. The 58 different sites have been selected and weather data of each site has been used to estimate irradiance, module temperature, and output power, which are analyzed to identify MFOC. The estimation MFOC has been verified with experimental data. Based on present study, seven MFOC have been found for India. Results show that the PR under MFOC is lower than the conventional PR by up to 4%.