TY - GEN
T1 - Temperatures of building applied photovoltaic (BAPV) modules
T2 - Reliability of Photovoltaic Cells, Modules, Components, and Systems III
AU - Oh, Jaewon
AU - TamizhMani, Govindasamy
AU - Palomino, Ernie
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Building applied photovoltaics (BAPV) is a major application sector for photovoltaics (PV). Due to the negative temperature coefficient of power output, the performance of a PV module decreases as the temperature of the module increases. In hot climatic conditions like Arizona, the BAPV module temperature can reach as high as 90-95°C during peak summer. Considering a typical 0.5%/°C power drop for crystalline silicon modules, about 30% performance drop would be expected during peak summer because of the difference between rated temperature (25°C) and operating temperature (∼90°C) of the modules. In order to predict the performance of PV modules, it becomes necessary to predict the module temperature. The module temperature is dictated by air gap between module and roof surface, irradiance, ambient temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. Based on the temperature and weather data collected over a year in Arizona, a mathematical thermal model has been developed and presented in this paper to predict module temperature for five different air gaps (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 inches) as well as modules with a thermally insulated (R30) back. The thermally insulated back is expected to serve as the worst case temperature a BAPV module could ever experience. This paper also provides key technical details on: the specially built simulated rooftop structure; mounting configuration of PV modules on the rooftop structure; LabVIEW program developed for data acquisition; and a data processing program for an easy data analysis.
AB - Building applied photovoltaics (BAPV) is a major application sector for photovoltaics (PV). Due to the negative temperature coefficient of power output, the performance of a PV module decreases as the temperature of the module increases. In hot climatic conditions like Arizona, the BAPV module temperature can reach as high as 90-95°C during peak summer. Considering a typical 0.5%/°C power drop for crystalline silicon modules, about 30% performance drop would be expected during peak summer because of the difference between rated temperature (25°C) and operating temperature (∼90°C) of the modules. In order to predict the performance of PV modules, it becomes necessary to predict the module temperature. The module temperature is dictated by air gap between module and roof surface, irradiance, ambient temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. Based on the temperature and weather data collected over a year in Arizona, a mathematical thermal model has been developed and presented in this paper to predict module temperature for five different air gaps (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 inches) as well as modules with a thermally insulated (R30) back. The thermally insulated back is expected to serve as the worst case temperature a BAPV module could ever experience. This paper also provides key technical details on: the specially built simulated rooftop structure; mounting configuration of PV modules on the rooftop structure; LabVIEW program developed for data acquisition; and a data processing program for an easy data analysis.
KW - Air gap
KW - BAPV
KW - Module temperature
KW - Rooftop
KW - Thermal model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77957826468&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77957826468&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1117/12.861069
DO - 10.1117/12.861069
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:77957826468
SN - 9780819482693
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Reliability of Photovoltaic Cells, Modules, Components, and Systems III
Y2 - 3 August 2010 through 5 August 2010
ER -