Performance Comparison among Multicrystalline Silicon, Anti-Reflective Coated and Bare Cadmium Telluride Photovoltaic Technologies in Southern Brazil
Abstract
This study aims to analyze the performance of mc-Si, CdTe and antireflective-coated (ARC) CdTe photovoltaic modules in Florianópolis, Brazil (27°S, 48°W). Results obtained from data for the full year of 2018 revealed that both CdTe and ARC-coated CdTe systems are great performers at the local operating conditions, yielding 1% and 4% more energy than mc-Si, respectively. This can be explained by local high temperatures and a blue-shifted solar spectrum, both characteristics favoring low-temperature-coefficient and blue-biased thin-film CdTe. For winter months, when the local spectrum is redder and temperatures are not as elevated, mc-Si presented a slightly better performance. Comparison between non-ARC and ARC CdTe reveals that ARC had a 3% gain over non-ARC modules for the year, summer months being the time of the year that favors the most the use of this coating.