Scientists from america and Brazil have developed 4 completely different strategies to estimate the temperature of floating PV modules. They validated the fashions with temperature measurements from a floating photo voltaic plant in Brazil.
US researchers from the College of Louisiana at Lafayette and scientists from the State College of Ponta Grossa in Brazil have developed 4 fashions to estimate the temperature of floating PV modules beneath numerous local weather situations, configurations , and places.
They developed a three-layer thermal mannequin, a simplified thermal mannequin, an empirical mannequin, and a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) mannequin. They utilized the fashions to a 330 W JA Photo voltaic module in a floating photo voltaic system on Passauna Lake in Brazil, between Might 2020 and September 2022. The system has an put in capability of 130 kW and -occupies an space of 1,200 sq. meters.
A extra complicated thermal mannequin research the dynamic habits of the photo voltaic cell temperature in three layers of the module: entrance floor, cell floor, and again floor. The simplified thermal module takes into consideration the temperature of the module as a complete. The empirical mannequin calculated the temperature behind the module utilizing the location knowledge by least sq. regression evaluation. CFD modeling additionally decided the temperature behind the module utilizing the finite component technique (FEM).
The outcomes present “a superb correlation between the proposed 4 fashions and the precise knowledge collected from the location with a [root mean square deviation (RMSD)] within the vary of 0.5 C to 4.8 C,” stated the scientists. The complicated thermal mannequin carried out one of the best, with an RMSD of two.04 C, adopted by the empirical mannequin at 2.27 C, the simplified thermal mannequin at 2.89 C, and eventually the CFD mannequin at 3.26 C. Nonetheless, the simplified thermal mannequin exhibits one of the best outcomes by way of following the linear becoming line of the particular temperature of the module.
The scientists additionally in contrast the effectivity of the floating photo voltaic module with a ground-mounted system, modeled by Sandia Nationwide Laboratories. The outcomes present {that a} most 3% acquire in effectivity is feasible, in comparison with the ground-mounted Sandia mannequin.
“The cooling impact of water performs an vital half in growing the effectivity of [floating PV] modules; because the temperature of the cell decreases because of the proximity of water, the effectivity will increase,” defined the lecturers.
They shared their findings in “Floating photovoltaic module temperature estimation: Modeling and comparability,” which was lately printed in Renewable Power.
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