IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 2, NO.

4, OCTOBER 2011 495

A New Index for Absolute Comparison of Standalone

Photovoltaic Systems Installed at Different Locations
Rafael Amaral Shayani, Member, IEEE, and Marco Aurélio Gonçalves de Oliveira, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Photovoltaic (PV) system performance assessment is PR Performance ratio (no unit).

an important issue in determining how much energy is effectively
used by PV-load systems. International Electrotechnical Commis- Solar constant W/m .
sion (IEC) 61724 establishes the reference yield as the global irra- Extraterrestrial yield (Ah).
diation in the plane of the PV array. Therefore, the performance
Declination of the sun (degree).
ratio obtained is only valid where the PV system is located and does
not allow the comparison between the performance of PV systems Solar-hour angle (degrees).
installed at different locations. Adopting a reference yield that is
Latitude of the location (degrees).
common to any location on Earth, a new absolute performance
ratio (APR) is introduced. It uses the average annual irradiation in *Additional nomenclature presented in Table I.
an extraterrestrial surface equipped with a Sun-Tracking System.
The interest of the new index is demonstrated through a simple ex-
ample were two identical standalone photovoltaic (SAPV) systems I. INTRODUCTION
are compared. While the IEC method shows both systems to have
similar performance, the APR points out that the cost of the energy
produced by one system is half that produced by the other.
Index Terms—Performance analysis, photovoltaic (PV) systems,
T HE International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
standard 61724, published in 1998, establishes guidelines
for the monitoring of photovoltaic (PV) system performance.
solar energy, solar power generation.
Performance indices are based on irradiation in the plane of
the array, and results depend on the quantity of sunlight over
NOMENCLATURE* the system [1]. This method, however, cannot be used to make
absolute comparison between the performance of standalone
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission. photovoltaic (SAPV) systems installed at locations subjected
to different irradiation values.
JRC Joint Research Center of the European
Aiming to fill this void, this paper expands the method
Commission.
outlined by the standards. A new efficiency index is proposed,
MPPT Maximum power point tracker.
named absolute performance ratio (APR). It considers the
SAPV Standalone photovoltaic. extraterrestrial solar energy available over the location where
STS Sun-Tracking System. the SAPV system is installed, allowing comparisons between
APR Absolute performance ratio (no unit). the performances of PV systems installed at different locations
throughout the world to be made in absolute terms. This index
Earth–sun distance ratio (no unit).
leads to higher efficiency values at sunny locations than in
Earth–sun mean distance 1 Astronomical Unit locations where the weather is mostly cloudy. As a conse-
km. quence, the overall efficiency of the system may be considered,
including the abundance or lack of solar energy at the location
Total solar energy above the atmosphere
of the installation.
(Wh/m /day).
Initially, the paper presents a brief overview of IEC 61724
Hour angle: : sunrise, : sunset (degree).
standard. Then, the need for a new index is introduced and jus-
True solar time (hours). tified and the index based on the amount of energy available
Atmosphere losses. above the atmosphere is defined. Special attention is devoted to
Astronomical sunshine duration (hours). the calculation of the extraterrestrial yield and a five-step proce-
dure to calculate it is presented. Finally, the new index is com-
Number of the day of year, from 1 to 365, starting
pared with the IEC index trough a two identical SAPV system
on January 1st.
example. Results show that the APR index is very effective to
fairly compare the performance of SAPV systems installed at
Manuscript received December 17, 2010; revised May 17, 2011; accepted different locations even if a Sun-Tracking System (STS) is used.
July 04, 2011. Date of publication July 14, 2011; date of current version
September 21, 2011.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of II. PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF SAPV SYSTEMS
Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil (e-mail: shayani@ieee.org; mago@ene.unb.br).
The Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commis-
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. sion published a document in 1997 with general guidelines for
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSTE.2011.2161678 the assessment of PV plants [2], [3]. Based on this document,

1949-3029/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE

496
TABLE I
IEC 61724 AND JOINT RESEARCH CENTER: REGISTERED PARAMETERS, VALUES
AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS REQUIRED TO ASSESS THE EFFICIENCY OF
IEC 61724 standard was published the following year, con-
taining measurement, data exchange, and analysis guidelines for
PV system performance monitoring [1].
Said procedures are applicable to standalone, hybrid (those
with a backup energy source), and grid connected systems. The
present paper is only concerned with SAPV systems. Thus, for
simplification, the parameters that involve backup and utility
grid systems were discarded from the formulas.
JRC and IEC 61724 standards refer to the measurement of
various SAPV system values, in order to determine performance
indicators. Table I presents the main parameters, the formulas
used and the resulting indicators.
A methodological difference exists between the procedures
established by the JRC and those of IEC 61724 standard, par-
ticularly regarding the definition of the term (total system
output energy). The JRC guideline does not consider the en-
ergy used to recharge the batteries as useful energy supplied by
the system. However, the IEC standard includes net energy to
storage as one of the components defining . Thus,
the performance of a PV system assessed according to the IEC
methodology will be better than the performance of the same
PV system assessed according to JRC [4].
As may be observed, both the IEC and the JRC method-
ology utilize parameters based on energy units (Table I). This
approach is advantageous when the charge controller of the
SAPV system has a maximum power point tracker (MPPT).
Systems that do not have an MPPT are not capable of ensuring
that the PV module always operates at maximum power point,
since the voltage in the array is determined by the parameters
of the battery. Certain energy variables may be overestimated,
producing errors in system performance calculations [5]. In this
situation, a method based on charge parameters may be used to
assess the performance of SAPV systems. With this approach,
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 2, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011
OBTAINED BY FORMULAS,
SAPV SYSTEMS [4]
parameters in energy units, as in JRC and IEC 61724 standard,
are converted into new charge parameters, in amperes-hour [5].
The use of charge-related parameters represents a more pre-
cise way of estimating the power effectively generated by the
array. This method allows PV system performance to be as-
sessed directly without needing to obtain parameters in energy
units to perform the calculations [5].
III. NEW PERFORMANCE RATIO FOR SAPV SYSTEMS
In this section, arguments favoring a new performance ratio
that allows the comparison of SAPV systems subjected to dif-
ferent solar irradiation levels are presented. An APR is intro-
duced, along with a new term, the extraterrestrial yield ,
as the denominator. The mathematical formula used to deter-
mine at any location on Earth and any day of the year is
presented. Therefore, a unique value allowing annual absolute
comparisons of SAPV systems is obtained.
A. Justification of an Index Allowing Absolute Comparisons
The amount of energy an SAPV system is capable of gener-
ating is directly affected by the quantity of solar resource avail-
able at the location where the system is installed. For example, a
1-kW SAPV system installed in a desert produces more energy
than an identical SAPV system installed at a location where the
sky is overcast most of the time.
The clearness of the sky may be measured by a clearness
index, which considers the global irradiation measured at the lo-
cation of interest, and the extraterrestrial irradiation calculated
for the same location [6].
IEC 61724 standard uses ground level irradiation as a refer-
ence yield, and does not consider attenuations due to cloudi-
ness. These attenuations should, however, be considered by the
PV system efficiency measurement methods in order to allow
SHAYANI AND DE OLIVEIRA: NEW INDEX FOR ABSOLUTE COMPARISON OF SAPV SYSTEMS
Fig. 1. Energy flows and performance ratio for PV systems. Texts linked by continuous lines represents JRC and IEC 61724 standard indices. The dotted lines
depict the new parameters.
comparisons between identical systems installed at different lo-
cations.
The method, outlined by IEC 61724 standard, considers the
reference yield to be the irradiation projected onto a fixed plane
having the same tilt angle as the PV array. The amount of energy
available, which is not effectively converted into electricity by
the PV modules is considered as array capture losses. However,
the use of an STS allows the PV array to produce more energy
than the amount used as the reference yield, since the dynamic
shifts in the tilt angle better captures direct sunlight beams that
perpendicularly irradiates on the solar cell. Thus, it is possible to
obtain negative array capture losses, which hampers the correct
analysis of the system’s performance. This limitation would no
longer exist if comparisons are based on absolute values.
B. Absolute Performance Ratio (APR)
To allow absolute comparisons of SAPV systems, a new ref-
erence yield is proposed, which is different from the average
daily global irradiation in the same plane of the PV array. It
is obtained by taking into account the effects of the clearness
index, and considering the additional energy that may be pro-
duced by the use of an STS.
Global irradiation above the atmosphere, calculated at the lat-
itude of the location where the system is installed, thus becomes
the reference yield, which takes into account all the energy that
may be used by the PV array. The name suggested for this value
is extraterrestrial yield . Hence, the proposed performance
index, called the APR, is defined as the ratio between the final
PV system yield and the extraterrestrial yield (1).
Fig. 1 presents the IEC 61724 standard indexes and this new
497
index. Atmosphere losses are obtained by subtracting the refer-
ence yield from the extraterrestrial yield
(1)
C. Extraterrestrial Yield
The extraterrestrial yield is based on the solar constant
( W/m ), which represents the average irradiation
above the atmosphere. Its calculation is carried out as follows:
the energy for a fixed and geostationary PV array is calculated;
the formula is then expanded for SAPV systems with STS in
order to obtain the maximum amount of available energy; lastly,
an annual average value is obtained. It is worth remarking that
this value is valid for all global latitudes.
The solar irradiation that reaches a horizontal, geostationary
surface located over the equator above the atmosphere varies
according to the rotation of the Earth. The Earth rotates once
every 24 hours, at an angular speed of 15 per hour. Equation
(2) shows the relation between the solar hour angle and the true
solar time [7]
(2)
where solar hour angle (degrees), and true solar time
(hours)
Table II presents the symmetric behavior of the solar angle
around noon time. The sunbeam incidence angle is important to
calculate the amount of energy that may be absorbed by a fixed
498
TABLE II
SYMMETRIC BEHAVIOR OF THE SOLAR ANGLE AT NOON TIME
Fig. 2. Relative annual movement of the Sun, from a north–south perspective, in terms of the Earth’s inclination.
horizontal surface, since only the beams perpendicular to the
solar cell are effectively absorbed by the PV array.
The average amount of energy received by the surface may
be calculated for a 24-hour period by the integral of the solar
constant during true solar time. Since only the perpendicular
solar beams produce energy in a PV array, the integration period
is restricted from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. (3). This integration
period represents the average length of a day. Being above the
atmosphere, there is no air mass effect
(3)
The movement of the Earth around the Sun may be repre-
sented by fixing the position of the Earth, with the Sun moving
between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (Fig. 2) [7].
An STS allows a PV array to follow the movement of the Sun
from east to west, between sunrise and sunset, and from north
to south, for each day of the year. With the use of an STS, the
absorption of solar energy may, theoretically, increase by up to
57%, from 7.64 S to 12.0 S, due to the dynamic shifting of the
azimuth and tilt angles (4). In this situation, irradiation is always
perpendicular to the array
(4)
In practical terms, the use of an STS may improve the cap-
ture of solar energy by up to only 30% [8], as opposed to 57%.
The energy that effectively reaches the PV array located on the
Earth’s surface is attenuated by the air mass and by nebulosity,
values that are measured by the clearness index.
The STS performs best in clear, cloudless skies, correctly
aligning the array towards the Sun so that the direct sunbeams
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 2, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011
are captured perpendicularly by the solar cell. When the sky is
overcast, diffuse irradiation increases, affecting the efficiency
of the tracker, since nebulosity decreases the incidence of direct
sunlight.
As an example, the clearness index for the city of Brasília,
Brazil, was measured by the Renewable Energy Laboratory of
the University of Brasília. Daily values were collected over a
12-month period, between 2005 and 2006. The annual average
clearness index obtained was 50%, which reduces the efficiency
of the STS to approximately 30%, being consistent with values
typically found in the literature [9].
Total daily irradiation above the atmosphere may be calcu-
lated for any given day of the year and global location. This
value is the product of the quantity of solar irradiance, which
depends on the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and the
astronomical sunshine duration, which depends on the latitude
of the location being considered.
The procedure used to calculate the extraterrestrial yield
is as follows: 1) the Earth–Sun distance ratio is determined for
each day of the year, using the Spencer equation (1971), as per
(5) and (6); 2) the tilt angle of the Sun is determined (7); 3) the
hourly tilt angle of the latitude of the location of the PV system
is determined (8); 4) the astronomical sunshine duration is de-
termined (9); and lastly, 5) the astronomical sunshine duration
is multiplied by the solar constant adjusted by the Earth–Sun
distance (10). The result is the solar irradiation above the at-
mosphere for the day being considered, in kWh/m /day [9]
(5)
(6)
SHAYANI AND DE OLIVEIRA: NEW INDEX FOR ABSOLUTE COMPARISON OF SAPV SYSTEMS 499

TABLE III
MAXIMUM SOLAR IRRADIATION AVAILABLE ABOVE THE ATMOSPHERE FOR VARIOUS DAYS AND LATITUDES, CONSIDERING A GEOSTATIONARY SURFACE
WITH AN STS (Wh/m /day)

where Earth–Sun distance ratio (no unit) and kWh/day. Although system A delivers twice
astronomical unit km number of the the amount of energy delivered by system B, both have the
day of year, from 1 to 365, starting on January 1st same performance ratio , as calculated according to
IEC 61724 standard.
(7) On the other hand, if the APR is used to compare the perfor-
mance of systems A and B, the values would be
where declination of the Sun (degree) and . Thus, based on this information, it is pos-
sible to more accurately assess the performance of these sys-
(8) tems. Since they have the same capacity and are very similar
to each other, they probably have similar installation and op-
where hour angle: : sunrise, : sunset (degree)
eration costs, but with different energy production capacities.
latitude of the location (degree)
However, as indicated by the APR, the cost of the energy pro-
(9) duced by system A is half that produced by system B.

where astronomical sunshine duration (hours)
(10)
where total solar energy above the atmosphere
(Wh/m /day) W/m .
Table III lists the maximum values of the available solar ir-
radiation above the atmosphere for various days and latitudes,
considering a geostationary surface with an SAPV system with
STS.
It may be observed that the annual mean for all locations is
16.41 kWh/m /day, with variations of less than 1% between lat-
itudes. Hence, an extraterrestrial yield kWh/m /day
may be considered the annual reference value and be used as the
denominator to calculate the APR. This value does not depend
on the latitude nor on the time of the year when considered on an
annual basis. However, if performance is assessed with regard
to certain days or months, must be calculated specifically for
the given period.
IV. APR APPLICATION EXAMPLE
Consider two identical SAPV systems, of 1 kW each,
installed at different locations on the planet. System A is
located at a sunny area, where daily global irradiation is
kWh/m /day, and load energy consumption is
kWh/day. System B is installed at a location where
the sky is overcast most of the time, with kWh/m /day
V. CONCLUSION
Performance assessment of PV systems is an important
issue to quantify losses and identify where they occur. Today’s
method is based on the IEC 61724 standard. It defines the
reference yield as the global irradiation in the plane of the
PV array. Therefore, the performance ratio obtained is only
valid where the PV system is located and does not allow the
comparison between the performance of PV systems installed
at different locations.
This paper introduced a new APR based on a reference yield
that is easily calculated for any location on Earth. It uses the av-
erage annual irradiation in an extraterrestrial surface equipped
with an STS. The interest of the new index was demonstrated
through a simple example where two identical SAPV systems
are compared. While the IEC method shows both systems to
have similar performance, the APR points out that the cost of
the energy produced by one system is half that produced by the
other.
REFERENCES
[1] Photovoltaic System Performance Monitoring—Guidelines for Mea-
surement, Data Exchange and Analysis, International Standard IEC
61724, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), 1998, First
ed., Geneve.
[2] Joint Research Center (JRC) of the Commission of the European Com-
munities, Guidelines for the Assessment of Photovoltaic Plants, Doc-
ument A, Version 4.3 Photovoltaic System Monitoring, Mar. 1997a.
[3] Joint Research Center (JRC) of the Commission of the European Com-
munities, Guidelines for the Assessment of Photovoltaic Plants, Doc-
ument B, Version 4.3 Photovoltaic System Monitoring, Mar. 1997b.
500
[4] International Energy Agency, Analysis of Photovoltaic Systems–Re-
port IEA-PVPS T2-01: 2000 Implementing Agreement on Photovoltaic
Power Systems (IEA-PVPS) [Online]. Available: http://www.iea-pvps.
org/
[5] F. J. Muñoz, G. Almonacid, G. Nofuentes, and F. Almonacid, “A new
method based on charge parameters to analyze the performance of
stand-alone photovoltaic systems,” Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells,
vol. 90, no. 12, pp. 1750–1763, 2006.
[6] M. Collares-Pereira and A. Rabl, “The average distribution of solar
radiation correlations between diffuse and hemispherical and between
daily and hourly insolation values,” Solar Energy, vol. 22, no. 2, pp.
155–164, 1979.
[7] R. L. Vianello and A. R. Alves, Meteorologia Básica e Aplicações Uni-
versidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil, 1991.
[8] T. Markvart and L. Castafier, Practical Handbook of Photovoltaics:
Fundamentals and Applications. Oxford, U.K.: Elsevier, 2003.
[9] R. A. Shayani and M. A. G. Oliveira, “Medição do Rendimento
Global do Sistema Fotovoltaico Isolado,” M.Sc. dissertation, Dept.
Electrical Eng., Brasilia’s Univ., Brasilia, Brazil, 2006, publication
PPGENE.DM-265/06.
Rafael Amaral Shayani (S’06–M’11) was born in
São Paulo, Brazil, on March 25, 1976. He received
the Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from
the Polytechnical School of the University of São
Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, in 1998, and the M.Sc.
and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Brasília,
Brasília, Brazil, in 2006 and 2010, respectively.
His professional experience includes the Centro
de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos (Brazil), where he
works as a consultant in the Prospective Study on
Photovoltaic Energy, and Johnson Controls, where
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, VOL. 2, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2011
he supervised electric power and air conditioning systems. He joined the
University of Brasilia in 2009. His areas of interest include renewable energy
sources, power quality, and energy efficiency.
Dr. Shayani received an award at the 8th Brazilian Energy Congress in 1999,
presenting a comparison on overall costs between energy production from hy-
droelectric power plants and from natural gas plants. He is the Secretary of IEEE
Brasilia Section.
Marco Aurélio Gonçalves de Oliveira
(M’91–SM’98) was born on December 20, 1958, in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He received the Bachelor of
Electrical Engineering degree from the University of
Brasília, Brasília, Brazil, in 1982, and the M.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees from the University of Paris, Paris,
France, in 1989 and 1994, respectively.
From 1982 to 1988, he was with the Operation Di-
vision of Eletronorte (Brazil) where he was involved
with load flow, stability, and electromagnetic tran-
sient studies. He joined the University of Brasilia in
1994, where he was the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering from
2006 to 2010. His research interests include power electronics, power quality,
renewables, and energy efficiency. He has published over 50 papers in those
fields.
Dr. de Oliveira was Chair of IEEE Brasilia Section and IEEE Brazil Council.