Effects of Surface Temperature Variations on Output Power of Three Commercial Photovoltaic Modules

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out to investigate the effects of surface temperature and solar irradiance changes on the performance of three commercially available Photovoltaic (PV) modules, namely monocrystalline, polycrystalline and single junction amorphous, in three hot and days. Data were recorded for six hours per day starting from 10 am to 3 pm each day with a one-hour interval. Power output for each solar panel is calculated and compared to understand the behavior of temperature and sunlight on solar panels. Temperature change has acquired by varying air velocities on the surfaces of the panels to measure the power output of each PV modules separately and detailed presentation has been made through graphs in this paper. The results have shown that for mono-crystalline, polycrystalline, and single junction amorphous photovoltaic modules output power increases with the decrease in temperature on the surface of the each unit. The surge in output power is less for single junction module because it has large surface area and takes more time to cool down. Mono and polycrystalline panels output are higher than single junction panel because they have less number of cells in their module which result in quick temperature reduction on their surfaces.