Abstract
The operating temperature of photovoltaic (PV) modules affects the photovoltaic conversion process. The operating temperature depends on various environmental conditions and on material-dependent properties of the PV modules. Many expressions for the operating temperature have been proposed in the literatures, some are simplified working Equation as NOCT (Nominal Operating Cell Temperature), and others are more complex, being based on a combination of the energy balance Equation and NOCT. The present study offers a new approach (model) for determining the PV module temperature based on the energy balance Equation and on the solar spectrum irradiance. While using the new model, the operating temperature has been determined for four module technologies: c-Si, a-Si/ μ c-Si, CdTe, and CIGS and it shows that the operating temperatures for the different cell types are close to the manufacturers’ NOCT data-sheet temperatures. For c-Si technology, for example, the simulation resulted in 43.2° and 46° for the spectrum and NOCT models, respectively. The proposed new model offers a new approach for determining the operating temperature of PV modules.
Highlights
The operating temperature of photovoltaic (PV) modules plays an important role in the photovoltaic conversion process and, on the energy assessment and on the economics of PV systems.The operating temperature depends on various environmental conditions, such as: the solar irradiance and its spectrum; the ambient temperature and wind speed; on material-dependent properties of the PV modules; properties needed for the calculation of the radiation heat transfer as albedo, sky temperature; and, on installation factors of the collector deployment in the PV field
Many expressions for the operating temperature have been proposed in the literatures, some are simplified working Equation as normal operating cell temperature (NOCT) (Nominal Operating Cell Temperature), others are based on energy balance Equations, and many more on combinations of the energy balance
The proposed novel approach of the present study to determine the operating module temperature is based on a combination of the energy balance Equation and the time-dependent solar spectrum
Summary
The operating temperature of photovoltaic (PV) modules plays an important role in the photovoltaic conversion process and, on the energy assessment and on the economics of PV systems. The use of the energy balance Equation [11] was attempted to define the module operating temperature, it was difficult to measure a term in the thermal losses of the PV module to the surroundings (see Section 3) in the energy balance Equation and, PV manufacturers adopted the NOCT expression. This simple method generally gives satisfactory results for ground mounted PV systems, but not for roof- integrated systems [9].
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