Statistical Analysis of Electrical and Non-Electrical Parameters of Photovoltaic Modules in Controlled Tracking Systems

Abstract

The paper presents statistical analysis of measurement results of electrical parameters for photovoltaic modules installed in stationary and dual-axis configurations. The parameters which were taken into account included: coefficient of variation, skewness and standard deviation. Also a correlation was determined between independent variables such as insolation, sunshine duration, cloudiness, ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, and the dependent variable in the form of the daily electricity from photovoltaic conversion. In order to determine the repeatability of electricity waveforms occurring between summer months as well as between summer and winter months, the non-parametric U Mann-Whitney test was used. In order to analyse the repeatability of daily peak hours in which the highest value of the hourly electricity production is observed, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used. The tested systems were connected to the power grid and operated independently. Test stands consisting of polycrystalline photovoltaic modules, single-phase on-grid inverters, irradiance sensors and a temperature recorder, were located on the building rooftop of the Faculty of Control Robotics and Electrical Engineering of the Poznan University of Technology in Poland (Central Poland, 52°24.4152′N, 16°55.7958′E) at the height of 30 metres above the ground level. A significant increase in the production of electricity using the PV module spatial positioning system was demonstrated in relation to modules based on the year-round modified design.