Efficiency improvement of PV module using an electrical thermal model

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) cells lose in their efficiency when operating under high temperatures. Proposing a new system of cells cooling is considered an overriding necessity. For this purpose, the main objective of this paper is the development of a suitable mathematical model that can calculate the internal temperature of the PV module as a function of ambient temperature, wind speed, and total irradiance. This paper presents an electrical and thermal model that analyses the heat transfer mechanisms in PV modules such as conduction, convection, and radiation. An air forced cooling is introduced principally to improve the performance of our studied system and reducing the internal temperature. This work demonstrates a good relevant result obtained through the comparison between the PV module with and without the air-cooling system.