Efficiency Assessment of Five Types of Photovoltaic Modules Installed on a Fixed and on a Dual-Axis Solar-Tracked Platform

Abstract

A solution to increase the electrical output of the photovoltaic systems relies on solar tracking mechanisms that increase the amount of received solar energy. The experimental results obtained during a monitoring period of one year are comparatively presented in the paper for five types of photovoltaic modules installed on a fixed platform (as reference) and on a dual-axis solar tracking platform in the Renewable Energy Systems and Recycling R&D Centre of the Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania. The influence of the solar-tracking mechanism and the meteorological conditions specific to the four seasons during the monitoring period on the output of the analysed photovoltaic technologies are discussed in the paper. The solar tracking increases by 28% the amount of the yearly received solar energy and by 29.6% the electrical energy output of the entire PV platform. The solar conversion efficiency of the tracked PV platform is slightly increased (14.34%) when compared with the fixed one (14.17%). When assessing the influence of solar tracking on each type of PV, the results show that the CIGS PV module has the highest relative energy gain (34%) followed by CIS (30.8%), m-Si (30.6%), p-Si (27.3%) and CdTe (23.4%) PV modules.

Simulation and Optimization of a Dual-Axis Solar Tracking Mechanism

“…Tracking System Type Control Strategy Location (Latitude/Longitude) Energy Gain [4] dual-axis open-loop 45.657974 N/25.601198 E 41.45% [5] dual-axis closed-loop 12.873498 N/80.219866 E 27% [6] dual-axis open-loop 33.838 N/−6.083 W 35.71% [7] dual-axis close-loop 29.571858 N/57.301047 E 31.8% [8] single-axis open-loop −29.72404 S/−53.71081 W 25.76% [9] single-axis open-loop 25.037519 N/121.563679 E 24.2% [10] dual-axis closed-loop 12.824342 N/101.216274 E 44.89% [11] dual-axis open-loop 45.657974 N/25.601198 E 29.6% [12] single|dual-axis closed-loop 26.43442 N/50.10326 E 18.73%|28.98% [13] single|dual-axis closed-loop 13.072090 N/80.201859 E 20%|40% [14] dual-axis open-loop −29.68605 S/−53.80692 W 20.87% [15] dual-axis open-loop 13.82184 N/100.51316 E 20.1% [16] single|dual-axis open-loop 45.957481 N/15.494230 E 30.04%|39.96% [17] dual-axis open-loop 3.023284 N/101.715903 E 26.9% [18] dual-axis open-loop −5.138724 S/119.443643 E 56.67%…”

“…Given that the number of tracking steps (n) is a design variable, defined by a predefined variation range during optimization, n ∈ [n min , n max ], to make it possible to automatically update the number of STEP functions in Equation (11), it was chosen to use a conditional "IF" function, having the format below [66]: IF(Function1: Function2, Function3, Function4), (13) where Function1 is the function/expression that ADAMS evaluates: if the value of Func-tion1 is less than 0, IF returns Function2; if the value of Function1 is 0, IF returns Function3; and if the value of Function1 is greater than 0, IF returns Function4. As examples, the forms of Equation ( 11) are presented below for the cases where the range of variation of the number of movement steps is n ∈ [1,2], Equation ( 14), and n ∈ [1,3]…”

“…In these terms, for further simplification, the obtained values have been rounded, thus resulting in equal values for the diurnal tracking steps, ∆ω I-VI = 10 • , with these values being later used for the transposition of the movement law corresponding to the interval from noon to evening. The start time for the six tracking steps, as they are defined in Figure 22 and Equation (11), resulted as follows: t I = 3.62, t II = 0.75, t III = 0.79, t IV = 0.77, t V = 0.74, and t VI = 0.63. These relative values correspond to the following moments of time when the tracking steps are initiated (in solar time): T I = t 0 + t I = 7.88, T II = T I + t II = 8.63, T I = T II + t III = 9.42, T IV = T III + t IV = 10.19, T V = T IV + t V = 10.93, and T VI = T V + t VI = 11.56.…”

Đánh giá các giải pháp làm mát tấm pin quang điện

“…Đường cong đặc trưng của PV ở các nhiệt độ khác nhau được thể hiện trong hình 2. Về mặt thực nghiệm, mỗi loại PV có một hệ số nhiệt độ khác nhau, hệ số nhiệt độ của công nghệ m-Si, p-Si, CIGS, CIS, CdTe lần lượt là -0,44; -0,45; -0,38; -0,39; -0,25 (%/ • K) [7].…”