Yield and performance analysis of PERC, HIT, and CIGS photovoltaic systems in five Peruvian city-climates

Latin American cities face challenges in designing and maintaining distributed photovoltaics (PV), with limited multi-year, cross-climate evidence to guide procurement and policy. We present a three-year outdoor evaluation of 1.5 kWp grid-connected PV systems based on Passivated Emitter Rear Cell (PERC), Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin Layer (HIT), and Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) modules installed in five Peruvian cities: Lima (coastal desert), Chachapoyas (tropical montane forest), Arequipa (arid highlands), Tacna (hot desert), and Juliaca (high-altitude Andes). Monitoring followed IEC-61724–1 at one-minute resolution, delivering reference, array, and final yields, capture and system losses, and performance ratio ( PR ). Diagnostics included electroluminescence (EL) and infrared (IR) thermography. Across all climates, system losses were low and stable (∼0.14–0.31 kWh/kWp/day), highlighting capture losses as the main performance differentiator. HIT modules achieved the most consistent results ( PR ≈ 0.83–0.87), sustaining high yields in humid and high-irradiance sites. PERC modules performed reliably in humid/temperate climates but underperformed in arid highlands, where EL/IR revealed early degradation and hotspot formation. CIGS modules remained stable only in the dry desert of Tacna ( PR ≈ 0.81); in humid or thermally variable climates, accelerated degradation likely linked to moisture ingress and shading stress reduced PR to ≤ 0.72. The dataset demonstrates how harmonized monitoring and diagnostics can inform technology–climate suitability, O&M standards, and procurement strategies. Results support climate-class specifications—prioritizing HIT in humid/coastal and high-altitude cities, enforcing acceptance tests for PERC in moderate climates, and restricting CIGS to arid sites—thus strengthening reliability assessment and performance-based planning for distributed PV.