Semi-Analytical Electro-Thermal Modelling of a Photovoltaic Module for Evaluation of Spatial Temperature Distribution

The paper presents a two-dimensional thermal model coupled with the electrical model to investigate the performance of a PV module. An iterative procedure is implemented by calculating analytically the boundary conditions for each cell of the PV module placed in the environment, considering the effect of solar irradiance and Joule heating. The temperature distribution is then calculated in each cell using a numerical model where an accurate description of connections is included. The electric current can be calculated inside each cell, starting from cell temperature distributions. An updated source term, including Joule dissipation, is evaluated to enhance boundary conditions by applying the eigenfunctions expansion method. Stationary solutions are obtained at the end of the iterative procedure showing the effects of Joule dissipation on the module performance. The effects of environmental conditions, irradiance and ambient temperature on the module temperature are also investigated.