Wind Effect Modeling and Analysis for Estimation of Photovoltaic Module Temperature

Abstract

The performance of photovoltaic (PV) modules in outdoor field conditions is adversely affected by the rise in module operating temperature. Wind flow around the module affects its temperature significantly, which ultimately influences the module output power. In this paper, a new approach has been presented, for module temperature estimation of different technology PV modules (amorphous Si, hetero-junction with intrinsic thin-layer (HIT) and multicrystalline Si) installed at the site of National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), India. The model based on presented approach incorporates the effect of wind speed along with wind direction, while considering in-plane irradiance, ambient temperature, and the module efficiency parameters. For all the technology modules, results have been analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively under different wind situations. Qualitative analysis based on the trend of module temperature variation under different wind speed and wind direction along with irradiance and ambient temperature has been presented in detail from experimental data. Quantitative results obtained from presented model showed good agreement with the experimentally measured data for different technology modules. The model based on presented approach showed marked improvement in results with high consistency, in comparison with other models analyzed for different technology modules installed at the site. The improvement was very significant in case of multicrystalline Si technology modules, which is most commonly used and highly temperature sensitive technology. Presented work can be used for estimating the effect of wind on different technology PV modules and for prediction of module temperature, which affects the performance and reliability of PV modules.