Abstract

This work reports on the performance of photovoltaic systems installed at a coastal and inner zones of the Atacama Desert (Chile), at 1700 and 2400 m.a.s.l. Seven photovoltaic systems were studied for 19 months. The technologies installed at each place were a cadmium telluride thin film and a multicrystalline silicon PV plant at fixed angle of 10° for the coastal zone, 25° for the 1700 m high and 10° for the 2400 m high location. A Single Axis Tracking multicrystalline PV plant is also installed at 1700 m.a.s.l. The global horizontal irradiation reached 2488 kWh/m2·year. The solar irradiation at the plane of array for both plants at fixed angle was 2367 and 2863 kWh/m2·year for the coastal and inner zone respectively. The plant with single axis sun tracking received 3510 kWh/m2·year. The maximum rate by which the performance ratio decreased was –4.4 %/month for the plant at 1700 m due to the soiling over 11.5 months. The energy yield for location 1, 2 and 3 resulted in 1774-1590-1902 kWh/kWp·year for CdTe, 1440-1790-1665 kWh/kWp·year for mc-Si at fixed angle, respectively, and 2320 kWh/kWp·year for mc-Si with one axis tracking. The levelized cost of electricity was reduced up to 30% after cleaning.