An overview of 4 years of kWh/kW/sub p/ monitoring at 67 sites worldwide

BP solar is involved in long term studies on IV swept, maximum power point tracked or grid connected arrays at currently 67 sites worldwide. Modules tested are from both BP solar and competitors products. Technologies studied include laser grooved buried contact (Saturn) "LGBC", screen printed mono and multicrystalline silicon; single, double and triple junction amorphous Si and CdTe. Different monitoring sites include independent test houses, 3/sup rd/ party collaboration, BP solar factories, downloads from the Internet and petrol station roofs. This study shows that kWh/kW/sub p/ differences between different PV systems depend strongly on module power tolerance, mismatch between series connected modules, BOS losses and downtime.