Title page for ETD etd-11122006-220414

Type of Document

Thesis

Author

Anthony, Thomas P.

URN

etd-11122006-220414

Title

Comparative Analysis of The Power Output of Crystalline Photovoltaic (PV) Modules using Solar Tracking System

Degree

Master of Science

Department

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Department of

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Yaw A. Owusu	Committee Chair
Carl A. Moore	Committee Member
James Simpson	Committee Member

Keywords

Solar Tracking
Crystalline Photovoltaic
PV

Date of Defense

2006-10-18

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

The focus of this thesis was to employ the use of two widely used types of photovoltaic (PV) modules namely monocrystalline and polycrystalline in a tracking system to determine which produces the greater output and compare these results to those reached by my predecessor, Michael O. Case[Case, 2003]. Several factors affect the overall productivity of a solar system. These include but are not limited to, time of day, time of year, latitude and atmospheric conditions, all of which were dealt with throughout this thesis.
The thesis began with the design and assembly of a solar tracking system. This system was used to collect data using monocrystalline and polycrystalline modules in various configurations. The configurations were stationary zero degrees, stationary forty degrees and solar tracking at forty degrees.
Once data was acquired, it was entered in to the statistical software “Design Expert V6.0”. Statistical analysis was then performed to determine the effect the chosen factors had on the power output of the two types of modules in terms of which type provides greater output and in what configuration.
It was determined that the monocrystalline module produces greater power output than its polycrystalline counterpart. A final experiment was set up to determine the mode that produces the greatest power output. The results from the experiment revealed that monocrystalline modules deliver greater power in a tracking configuration. However, it may be necessary to consider the effects of temperature depending on application of these modules.

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