A PVT Cooling System Design and Realization: Temperature Effect on the PV Module Performance Under Real Operating Conditions

Abstract

It is established that the efficiency of the most common solar cells decreases when their temperature increases. The photovoltaic module characteristics, especially its efficiency and its maximum power, are defined in standard test conditions (STC), while their nominal operating temperature is higher than ambient temperature and depending on operating conditions of the photovoltaic module. Thus, it is important to characterize the photovoltaic module performance under real operating conditions and for different temperature values. This study involves the design and realization of a cooling system of a monocrystalline photovoltaic module by a sheet of water circulating on its backside, while keeping its temperature values 2 to 3 degrees higher than the cooling water temperature. This system is investigated numerically to determine the configuration enabling a good control of the temperature on photovoltaic module surface. The realized and described hybrid system in this paper was intended to validate results of the optimal configuration obtained by simulation based on finite element method. The extraction and comparison of physical parameters of the cooled photovoltaic module with those of a similar reference module without cooling system are described.