Research Article Open Access

Effect of Ambient Conditions on Thermal Properties of Photovoltaic Cells: Crystalline and Amorphous Silicon

Abstract

The temperature of PV (Photovoltaic) modules is one of the most important factors because it affects both the efficiency of a Photovoltaic module and the energy load and it’s also affected by several ambient conditions. Among these conditions, there is ambient temperature, direct irradiance and wind speed. There have been many studies that determine the effect of these parameters on the efficiency and performance of PV cells; but there is no particular study that has discussed the influence of these parameters on the thermal parameters of PV cells. This paper evaluates the effects of ambient conditions on the Photovoltaic module’s thermal characteristics of two photovoltaic modules: crystalline and amorphous silicon technologies. The results show that the ambient conditions affect the PV module temperature and also the thermal parameters. The influence of these factors should be taken into account so as to have a deep insight in solar cell design.

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