Long-term performance potential of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems

Highlights: • First ever reported CPV performance testing in tropical region of Singapore. • Long-term electrical energy of 240.2 kW h/m²·year is recorded for CPV in Singapore. • Measured performances of CPV is two folds higher than the stationary PV. • CPV performance data is for 12-months period with 66% beam radiations availability. - Abstract: Owing to the diverse photovoltaic (PV) systems' design and technology, as well as the dynamic nature of insolation data received on the aperture surfaces, the instantaneous output from a PV system fluctuates greatly. For accurate performance estimation of a large PV field, the long term performance as electrical output is a more rational approach over the conventional testing methods, such as at Standard Testing Conditions (STC) and at the Nominal Operating Cell Temperature (NOCT) available hitherto. In this paper, the long-term performances of concentrated PVs (Cassegrain reflectors and Fresnel lens) with 2-axes tracking and a variety of PV systems, namely the stationary flat-plate PV (mono-crystalline, poly-crystalline and thin-films CIS types), is presented over a period of one year for the merit comparison of system design, under the tropical weather conditions of Singapore. From the measured field performances, the total energy output of 240.2 kW h/m²/year is recorded for CPV operation in Singapore, which is nearly two folds higher than the stationary PV panels.