A new dynamic 2D fusion model and output characteristic analysis of floating photovoltaic modules considering motion and environmental factors

Abstract

As a new application form, floating photovoltaic power generation is a green and sustainable energy source with immense development potential. However, built on marine or riverine surface, the floating photovoltaic system not only faces challenges from environment factors that land-based photovoltaic system meets, but also faces challenges from the motion of the floating bodies which are caused by the continuous external forces of wind and waves. Modelling and analyzing the output characteristics of floating photovoltaic modules is desirable and useful to improve power generation efficiency. This paper presents a new dynamic 2D fusion model and analysis method for analyzing the dynamic characteristics of floating photovoltaic modules under continuous changes in motion, irradiance, and temperature caused by actual wind and waves conditions. To achieve accurate measurement of floating photovoltaic modules, the coupling relationship between the motion state and the environmental factors is established. Then the motion state modeling of floating photovoltaic modules based on multi-sensors information fusion is established to acquire the absolute attitude angle with the continuous superposition of high and low frequency motion in the geographical coordinate system. On this basis, a new dynamic 2D fusion model of floating photovoltaic modules is set up to obtain the dynamic output characteristics, which integrates mechanical motion state information with the electrical parameters. Finally, the proposed modelling and analyzing method is evaluated with experimental data. The experimental and analytical results show that the accuracy of the 2D fusion model is higher than 98.7%, the output efficiency of floating photovoltaic modules is only 94.2% compared to the static state, and power generation efficiency can be increased by 2.5% by using the proposed method. The new modelling method proposed in the paper can accurately obtain the output characteristics of the floating photovoltaic system under actual operating conditions, which can effectively improve the efficiency of power generation.