Modeling of steady-state heat transfer through various photovoltaic floor laminates

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to model steady-state heat transfer through the layers of five different photovoltaic laminates using the finite element method, assuming that those laminates are installed on a flat floor surface. The following photovoltaic technologies are considered: silicon-based, chalcogenide-based, organic, III-V dual-junction, and perovskite-based. The novelties included in the proposed model are as follows. First, the model is developed to be applicable to all existing photovoltaic technologies. Second, solar heating of photovoltaic laminates is modeled by an equivalent solar irradiance. Third, a new iterative procedure for calculating the maximum operating cell temperature at specified service conditions is proposed. The finite element method-based thermal model created is validated and calibrated by existing data on performance and actual service conditions gathered from six independent experiments. Performance parameters of the considered photovoltaic laminates are obtained for standard test conditions and four different sets of specific service conditions. The results show that the differences between the simulated and measured temperatures are lower than 10 %, and that the maximum operating cell temperature fits into a corresponding range of measured values. Finally, the proposed iterative procedure is found to yield each solution in two iterations with a difference of less than 0.25 °C.