Prediction Model of Photovoltaic Module Temperature for Power Performance of Floating PVs

Waithiru Charles Lawrence Kamuyu, Jong Rok Lim, Chang Sub Won and Hyung Keun Ahn
Additional contact information
Waithiru Charles Lawrence Kamuyu: Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-Ro, Gwanjin-Gu, Seoul 143-701, Korea
Jong Rok Lim: Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-Ro, Gwanjin-Gu, Seoul 143-701, Korea
Chang Sub Won: LSIS R&D Campus 116 beongil 40 Anyang, Gyeonggi 431-831, Korea
Hyung Keun Ahn: Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-Ro, Gwanjin-Gu, Seoul 143-701, Korea

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Rapid reduction in the price of photovoltaic (solar PV) cells and modules has resulted in a rapid increase in solar system deployments to an annual expected capacity of 200 GW by 2020. Achieving high PV cell and module efficiency is necessary for many solar manufacturers to break even. In addition, new innovative installation methods are emerging to complement the drive to lower $/W PV system price. The floating PV (FPV) solar market space has emerged as a method for utilizing the cool ambient environment of the FPV system near the water surface based on successful FPV module (FPVM) reliability studies that showed degradation rates below 0.5% p.a. with new encapsulation material. PV module temperature analysis is another critical area, governing the efficiency performance of solar cells and module. In this paper, data collected over five-minute intervals from a PV system over a year is analyzed. We use MATLAB to derived equation coefficients of predictable environmental variables to derive FPVM’s first module temperature operation models. When comparing the theoretical prediction to real field PV module operation temperature, the corresponding model errors range between 2% and 4% depending on number of equation coefficients incorporated. This study is useful in validation results of other studies that show FPV systems producing 10% more energy than other land based systems.

Keywords: floating PV systems (FPV); floating PV module (FPVM) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/2/447/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/2/447/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:2:p:447-:d:132345

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().