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Actual vs. warranted PV module production

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  • Actual vs. warranted PV module production

    Hello experts

    You know how the ‘regular’ module has a 25 year production warranty which usually consists of 2.5-3% first year degradation and 0.7% annual linear degradation for the following 24 years. I am not sure how this number compares to the actual yield?

    1. Is the above a ‘worst case scenario’? I am guessing yes, because what manufacturer would warrant a product that is expected to work at the borderline. Now, how does this manufacture’s production warranty compare to the actual/expected yield? Is it safe to assume that the actual yield is somewhere in the middle of this 0.7%/year degradation, or more, or less than half? In other words, how better does the module actually perform in real situation? By how much does it outperform its production warranty?(Based on actual site data. I know you are gonna say that this will depend on a thousand other factors, but pls. save it)

    2. When calculating the bankability of a project, so ROI and all that good stuff, what kind of degradation %, do you account for? The one that is warranted by the manufacturer, or the answer to my first question. What is the practice?

    If you reference any technical standard/white paper to look up, I'd greatly appreciate it.

  • #2
    Thank you for the save it admonition. I appreciate your consideration.

    I'll not waste your time, except to suggest that, without a lot of monitoring, including irradiance levels from a calibrated pyranometer, and for a dozen or more other reasons, you will not know how actual performance compares to expected performance.

    For financial considerations, take the spec sheet values as nominal, annual degradation as probably not to exceed.

    See the copious NREL stuff or reference.

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