Outdoor testing of photovoltaic modules during summer in Taxila, Pakistan

Abstract

An experimental study has been carried out to measure the performance of commercially available photovoltaic modules during summer months in the climate of Taxila, near the capital of Pakistan. The modules used in the study are monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and single junction amorphous silicon. The analysis has been focused on the measurement of module efficiency, performance ratio and temperature of each module at actual operating conditions using outdoor monitoring facility. The measured results are compared with the already published data of peak winter month at the same site. Overall, the monocrystalline module showed high average module efficiency while amorphous silicon module was better in term of average performance ratio. Furthermore, the module efficiency and performance ratio has shown decreasing trend with increase of module temperature. It was found that modules have much higher temperature in summer months (about 20°C higher) and showed low efficiency and performance ratio than peak winter month. The average ambient temperature varied from 18.1--38.6°C from winter to summer.

Evaluation of Energy Production and Energy Yield Assessment Based on Feasibility, Design, and Execution of 3 × 50 MW Grid-Connected Solar PV Pilot Project in Nooriabad

“…The lesser the temperature of the photovoltaic module is put off, the greater the impact on the performance level and increases of the efficiency such that PV performance takes an inverse relation with PV module temperature [20]. Besides efficiency of PV, modules depend on the operating temperature and the power density of the solar radiation as well as environmental conditions and seasons of the year [15,21]. If the PV module's temperature increases, the efficiency shall decrease linearly, at STC conditions [22].…”

“…In PV system efficiency, items included the inverter efficiency η inv and PV module efficiency η PV . Inverter efficiency and PV module efficiency are given below [21].…”

“…The performance ratio (PR) falls between relations of yield factor of the PV plant divided by the reference yield (system yield) as illustrated in [9,23,32]. Usually, performance ratio and module efficiency of PV modules decreased with the increase of solar irradiance and high module temperature [21]. It presents the total losses such as panel degradation, temperature, soiling, transformer, inverter, system availability, and grid connection in the system when converting from nameplate DC rating to AC output [15].…”

Modeling the effect of the inclination angle on natural convection from a flat plate: The case of a photovoltaic module

“…Ex am ple 2. W = W PV = 0.468 m, L = L PV = 0.624 m, h el = 0.113, a S = 0.97, e UF = 0.91, e DF = 0.85, T a = 36 °C, y = 42°, Q' E,s,S = 997cos (48°) Wm -2 , and v w = 2.3 ms -1 [4,21].…”

“…The ef fects of the so lar ra di a tion and heat losses due to forced con vec tion and ra di a tion from the outer sur faces of the PV mod ules are taken into con sider ation. Cal cu la tion re sults of the two worked ex am ples and the cor re spond ing ex per i men tal data [4,20,21] have served to val i date the pro posed mod el ing con cept.…”