Solar energy has become a mature and mainstream source of electricity where the photovoltaic (PV) industry has experienced remarkable growth over the past decade worldwide not only in rural but also in urban areas (Kaldellis and Kokala 2010). PV industry has already exceeded the 100 GW installed capacity range in 2012 with approximately 25% in residential applications (De La Tour, Glachant et al., 2011). Germany is the leading country with lead the installation of 7.6 GW in 2012 following by China with 3.5 to 4.5 GW (Jäger-Waldau, 2012) and US with 3.2 GW is the fourth in the world (Jäger-Waldau, 2012).
Despite the growth in the installation range, one of the main factors limiting the application of PV industry is the relatively low conversion efficiency of PV cells (Kaldellis and Kokala, 2010). In order to apply PV technologies as a commercially feasible approach, high attention needs to be given to the factors affecting their energy performance (Brinkworth and Sandberg, 2006; Raugei and Frankl, 2009). Figure 1 presents the process in the generation of energy by PV modules.
Overview of solar PV power plant, reprinted from (Corporation, 2012), with permission