A method for the outdoor thermal characterisation of high-concentrator photovoltaic modules alternative to the IEC 62670-3 standard

Pedro M. Rodrigo, Ramiro Velázquez, Eduardo F. Fernández, Florencia M. Almonacid and Aimé Lay-Ekuakille

Energy, 2018, vol. 148, issue C, 159-168

Abstract: The IEC 62670-3 standard recommends the open-circuit voltage method to calculate the cell temperature inside high-concentrator photovoltaic (HCPV) modules. This method requires knowledge of the temperature coefficient of open-circuit voltage (β), and the same standard provides a procedure to get this parameter. In this paper, an alternative method for the thermal characterisation of HCPV modules is proposed. As an advantage, it allows obtaining both the β parameter and the internal thermal resistance (ρ) of the device from outdoor measurements. No internal sensor for measuring the cell temperature is required as in the case of the IEC 62670-3 standard. Knowing the ρ parameter allows a more accurate characterisation of the cell temperature. The proposed procedure is applied to a real HCPV module. An outdoor experimental campaign of two months in Jaén (Southern Spain) was carried out. The β value was underestimated in a 0.50% and the ρ value was overestimated in a 4.18%. When applying the estimated parameters for the prediction of the cell temperature, the open-circuit voltage method gave a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.41 °C, while the internal thermal resistance method gave a RMSE of 0.62 °C.

Keywords: Cell temperature; Concentrator photovoltaics; Electrical characterisation; Thermal characterisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217321023
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:148:y:2018:i:c:p:159-168

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.12.064

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().