Performance of Silicon Heterojunction Photovoltaic modules in Qatar climatic conditions

We report on the performance of two cell technologies: Silicon Heterojunction (SHJ) and conventional diffused junction n-type mono-crystalline silicon Photovoltaic (PV) arrays, under a harsh environment condition with high temperature and dust accumulation, typical to Qatar. A comparison of the energy yield and Performance Ratio (PR) at plane of array global irradiance as well as module temperature (Tmod) of the two technologies is presented. The SHJ arrays showed a higher energy yield as compared with the conventional arrays thanks to the higher efficiency of the SHJ. The results showed also that dust accumulated on PV modules may cause a drop in the PR of up to approximately 15% if the module is not cleaned for one month. Scheduled module cleaning or raining will return the PR close to its initial value.