Energy performance assessment of monocrystalline and polycrystalline photovoltaic modules in the tropical mountain climate: The case for Manizales-Colombia

Colombia has been focusing on the implementation and use of renewable energies (RE). One of those RE is photovoltaic solar energy, which has great potential in Colombia, as average radiation in the country is 4.5 KWh/m(2)day. Research therefore needs to be conducted in the country to enhance the use of photovoltaic solar systems in specific climate conditions, and according to the installation parameters of the photovoltaic systems. Moreover, the integration of the photovoltaic solar systems in the city of Manizales-Colombia is at an early stage, mainly because of the belief that they are not feasible due to the cold city's climate and cloud cover. This paper presents the results of the energy performance assessment of two solar photovoltaic systems installed at the National Learning Service - SENA, in Manizales-Colombia. The mean focus in this research was to study the performance of the monocrystalline and polycrystalline photovoltaic solar modules, in the climate conditions of Manizales-Colombia. The solar systems in question are monocrystalline and polycrystalline photovoltaic solar systems, both connected to the grid. The test variables were the room temperature, module temperature, inverter temperature, solar radiation at the testing site, input and output voltages and currents of the inverter. The data was gathered every 10 min for each one of the variables, and the experiment was conducted over a four-season period. In general, Manizales has favourable climate conditions for the installation of photovoltaic solar systems, regardless of whether polycrystalline or mono-silicon is used. This is supported mainly by the temperature losses analysis, as these values were equal to or under 3%. The main cause for the optimal performance of the photovoltaic generation modules is due to the fact that the ambient temperature of the city rarely rises above 25 degrees C. There is no significant difference between the performance of each generator, depending on the winter or summer seasons. One possible reason is that seasonal differences are not as extreme in Colombia due to its latitudinal location. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.