An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Photovoltaic Module Temperature Under Varying Environmental Conditions

Abstract

The photovoltaic module temperature depends on many parameters and becomes an important parameter from the system efficiency point of view. For this reason, in this research, a comprehensive analysis of the photovoltaic modules has been done using in-situ experimental measurement and computer simulation. The objective of the current work is to model the fluid flow and heat transfer from a photovoltaic module, by means of three-dimensional numerical simulation to determine the module temperature. The photovoltaic module with the variable inclination was subjected to variable environmental and operating conditions. The results of the analysis show that module temperature isn’t only ambient temperature and solar radiation dependent like what is taken into account by many models but also depends on wind speed and wind direction. It has been found that the mounting conditions which are not taken into consideration by most of the literature models, play an important role and only this fact may introduce an additional increase in module temperature about 10–15 °C and may decrease module efficiency more them 4-6.5%. The results that were obtained enable the development of a model for the photovoltaic module temperature caused by the environmental conditions as well as mounting conditions.

Acknowledgements

The photovoltaic installation was funded by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, Grant 139/2015/Wn06/OA-is-ku/D. This work was partially financed by AGH UST Rector Grant No. 35/2018 and AGH University Grant No.11.11.210.312.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marek Jaszczur

Marek Jaszczur is an associate professor at the AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Energy and Fuels, Kraków, Poland. He teaches advanced heat transfer, computer science and CFD. His research is an interdisciplinary blend of applied mathematics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics and numerical methods. He uses direct numerical simulations, large eddy simulations, particle image velocity, laser induced fluorescence as a tool to explore the world. He is member of ERCOFTAC, Committee on Thermodynamic and Combustion section of Thermodynamics, Erasmus coordinator.

Janusz Teneta

Janusz Teneta is a Ph.D. at AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering, Krakow, Poland. Board member of the Polish Photovoltaic Society. He deals with standards related to photovoltaics in the Polish Committee for Standardization. Researcher, promoter of renewable energy and a coach in training courses for installers of photovoltaic systems.

Qusay Hassan

Qusay Hassan is a Ph.D. student at AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of energy and Fuels, Krakow, Poland. He received a diploma in mechanical engineering from Baghdad University of Technology, Iraq and diploma of master in power engineering from Warsaw University of Technology, Poland. He is currently preparing his thesis and working on hybrid power systems and solar energy conversion.

Ewelina Majewska

Ewelina Majewska received the M.Sc. degree in Energy Engineering from AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Energy and Fuels, Krakow, Poland in 2018. Her specialization is sustainable energy development. She works as Project Engineer at the company from R&D industry. She is currently working on numerical analyses for wind industry. She is interested in heat transfer, fluid mechanics and computer modeling.

Robert Hanus

Robert Hanus, received his Ph.D. and tenured at the Lviv Polytechnic National University (Ukraine) and Rzeszów University of Technology (RUT, Poland) in 1997 and 2016, respectively. He is currently employed as the Head of the Department of Metrology and Diagnostic Systems at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering RUT. His scientific interests include metrology, measurement systems and signal processing.