The performance assessment of thin film solar cells under realistic outdoor conditions has been little studied and warrants further investigation. While the laboratory efficiency of these new devices is lower than conventional devices, the performance ratio and thus the kWh/kWp is often reported to be higher for these new cells. This paper concentrates on devices made of amorphous silicon (a-Si), which is currently the most common thin film technology available. In order to actually predict the energy yield from these devices, an enhanced understanding of the effects of varying operating conditions on their performance is necessary. The work presented here is split into two parts: in the first part, the magnitude of different effects on the performance of a-Si devices is investigated experimentally for the UK, namely device temperature, magnitude and spectral composition of irradiance and degradation. In the second part, this information is used for the construction of a model suitable for modelling the performance of a-Si systems, including effects due to multi-junction structures.
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