Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

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Materials Science for Energy Technologies

CHINESE ROOTS
GLOBAL IMPACT
journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/materials-science-for-energy-technologies

Thermal performance analysis of a poly c-Si PV module under semi-arid

conditions
Ibtissam Lamaamar a,⇑, Amine Tilioua a,⇑, Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui b
a
Research Team in Thermal and Applied Thermodynamics (2.T.A.), Mechanics, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energies Laboratory (L.M.3.E.R.), Department of Physics, Faculty
of Sciences and Techniques Errachidia, Moulay Ismaïl University of Meknès, B.P. 509, Boutalamine, Errachidia, Morocco
b
Faculty of Sciences, Department of Physics, Moulay Ismail University of Meknès, Meknes B.P. 11201 Zitoune, 5000 Meknes, Morocco

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The performance of the photovoltaic (PV) module decreases as the PV module temperature increases. To
Received 7 July 2021 improve the electrical performance, the PV module must be cooled by removing heat in some way. In this
Revised 8 March 2022 paper, the thermal performance of a PV module has been examined by using a two-dimensional thermal
Accepted 11 March 2022
model based on the finite volume method. The radiative transfer is calculated using the discrete ordinate
Available online 17 March 2022
method. The effect of front and back sheets on the temperature distribution of the PV module was stud-
ied. The obtained results show that the PV module temperature reaches the maximum value 63.4 °C. The
Keywords:
temperature difference between the front and the PV cells is 0.5 °C and, between the PV cells and the back
Photovoltaic module
Temperature distribution
side is 1.1 °C. The glass front layer of the PV module presents a better efficiency compared to the PMMA
Thermal resistance front layer. By increasing the thickness of the glass from 0.003 m to 0.004 m and the thickness of the alu-
Heat transfer minum back sheet from 0.0005 m to 0.002 m, the PV cells temperature decreased.
Ó 2022 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction mal behavior of a PV module as a function of the physical parameters

of the photovoltaic cells, the module and the environment, using dif-
The proper functioning of a solar photovoltaic module is strongly ferent simulation models based on different thermal assumptions to
linked to the temperature factor. The temperature has a consider- predict the temperature and electrical efficiency of a PV panel. F. Sar-
able influence on the behavior of the cell and therefore on its perfor- haddi et al [6] have investigated the evaluation of thermal and elec-
mance. This influence results mainly in a decrease of the generated trical performance of a PV/T solar collector. The authors developed a
voltage (and a very slight increase of the current). An increase of 1 °C thermal and electrical model to calculate the thermal and electrical
in the PV panel temperature above 25 °C results in a reduction in parameters of a typical PV/T air collector, they include solar cell tem-
power output and conversion efficiency of 0.65 % and 0.08 % respec- perature, back surface temperature, outlet air temperature, open cir-
tively [1]. A reduction in power as a function of temperature with a cuit voltage, short circuit current, maximum power point voltage,
coefficient of between 0.4%/K and 0.65%/K is observed for crystalline and maximum power point current. Their numerical simulation
silicon photovoltaic systems operating above 25 °C [2]. The effi- results are in good agreement with the experimental measure-
ciency of the PV module with single junction presents 33.3% under ments. M. Mattei et al [7] have examined the performance of a
normal conditions at 300 K. This efficiency can be improved by three grid-connected PV module as a function of environmental variables
ways namely; (i) cooling (48.48%), (ii) optical concentration (40%), such as solar irradiance, ambient temperature, and wind speed using
and (iii) reducing losses due to thermalization and non-absorbed two types of coupled models validated with experimental data: a
photons [3]. Several research works [4,5] have investigated the ther- model of the temperature and a model of the electrical efficiency
of the PV module. In addition, M. Koehl et al [8] have evaluated the
PV module temperature using simple analytical and statistical mod-
⇑ Corresponding authors.
els based on climatic data such as ambient temperature, global solar
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (I. Lamaamar), a.tilioua@umi.
irradiance and wind speed. The authors concluded that the impact of
ac.ma (A. Tilioua).
radiation cooling and natural convection can be neglected for wind
Peer review under responsibility of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
speeds above 2 m/s. Several researchers [9,10] have proposed corre-
lations to calculate the PV operating temperature by considering
solar irradiation, ambient temperature, and wind speed. A. D. Jones
Production and hosting by Elsevier and C. P. Underwood [11] proposed a dynamic model based on a

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mset.2022.03.001
2589-2991/Ó 2022 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
I. Lamaamar, A. Tilioua and Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

non-steady state equation to estimate the temperature of the PV logical conditions of the Errachidia city (South Eastern Morocco)
module by considering the different energy exchanges at the PV taken on June 25, 2020, the solar irradiation and ambient temper-
module. Y. Lee and A.A.O. Tay [12] examined the thermal behavior ature are illustrated in Fig. 1.
of the PV module to predict the temperature distribution of each To investigate the heat transfer in the PV module, we took into
layer, using the finite element method. The authors found that the account the convection and radiation exchanges in the front and
cells closer to the frame of module have a temperature difference rear sides of the module and by conduction between layers of
of 5° C compared to the cells in the center of the module. S.P. Aly the PV module. Fig. 2 describes the heat exchanges on boundary
et al. [13] developed a thermal model that describes the thermal conditions. The height of the PV module taken for this study is
behavior of a standalone PV system. This model is based on the finite 0.1 m and the PV module’s tilt angle equal to 32 deg. The
difference method with an implicit time scheme. The authors used thermo-physical and optical properties of the PV module layers
realistic boundary conditions to improve the accuracy of the PV cell are listed in Table 1 [26] and Table 2 [27,28] respectively.
temperature prediction. However, the operating temperature of the In all simulations carried out in this study, the computer used
PV module is influenced by many factors. A decrease in the PV oper- had the following characteristics: Xeon CPU at 3 GHz and 8 GB of
ating temperature leads to an increase in module performance. Sev- RAM. The thermal simulation of the PV module was carried out
eral investigations [14–17] have focused on the factors influencing using the finite volume approach with the ANSYS Fluent software.
the temperature of PV modules such as optical air mass and solar It was based on a two-dimensional model, using the following sim-
irradiation. J. Zhou et al. [18] investigated the solar irradiation, ambi- plified assumptions:
ent temperature and wind speed effects on the thermal behavior of
the polycrystalline PV module. The authors showed that the perfor- - Thermal properties of all materials in the module were pre-
mance of the PV module can be improved by optimizing the back sumed to be isotropic and temperature-independent.
sheet and the aluminum alloy sheet, which perform best on heat dis- - The model sides were taken to be adiabatic.
sipation [19]. Besides, several works have focused on different cool- - The back and the front of the PV module were taken to view the
ing technologies to decrease the operating temperature of the PV ground and sky respectively.
module and consequently improve its performance. M. Usama Sid- - There is not any agent deposited on the PV surface affecting the
diqui et al. [20] have developed a new three-dimensional numerical absorptivity of the PV module.
model to predict the thermal behavior of PV module with and with- - Dust on the PV module is negligible.
out cooling under different environmental conditions. This model is - The contact between PV module layers is considered perfect.
coupled with a radiation model and an electrical model. The authors - The transmittance and absorption of each layer is independent
found that with cooling, the performance of the PV panel has very lit- of the wavelength of the incident solar irradiation.
tle influence on the increase of absorbed radiation and without any
cooling the performance of the PV panel decreased significantly. 2.2. Theoretical analysis
They also developed a multiphysics model capable of calculating
the three-dimensional temperature distribution in the PV module 2.2.1. Energy equation
and auxiliary thermal collector on four different days representing The dominant mode of heat transfer within the layers of the PV
different temperatures and cloud conditions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia module is conduction transfer. After taking into account the sim-
[21]. A.M. Elbreki et al. [22] used both passive and active heat dissi- plifying assumptions, the heat equation becomes:
pation approaches to lower the high temperature of the PV module. !
They concluded that passive approaches in reducing the PV module @T @2T @2T
qC p ¼ k 2 þ 2 þ Si ð1Þ
temperature are more effective compared to active approaches. H.G. @t @ x @ y
Teo et al. [23] investigated the active cooling of PV module, they con-
cluded that without active cooling of PV module, the temperature
increases and the solar cells cannot reach efficiency up to 9 %. 2.2.2. Radiation heat transfer
Besides, when the PV module operates in an active cooling state, The radiation incident I(t) on the glass surface, which is a semi-
the temperature dropped significantly, which resulted in an increase transparent medium, is divided into three parts. Part of this radia-
of efficiency until 14%. Likewise, A. Shukla et al. [24] discussed var- tion is absorbed through the glass layer thickness, another part is
ious cooling techniques such as forced and natural air cooling, reflected, and the remaining part passes through the glass, is trans-
hydraulic, heat pipe cooling, cooling with phase change materials
and thermoelectric cooling of PV panels. They claimed that the inte-
gration of phase change material (PCM) as a cooling medium pre- 1000 70
Solar radiation (W/m2)

sents an alternative to the energy performance of the PV module. Solar radiation

The aim of this paper is to study the thermal behavior of the PV mod- Tamb 60
Temperature (°C)

800
ule. A two-dimensional thermal model based on the finite volume Tsky
method has been developed by taking into account the temperature 50
evolution during the day. The temperature distribution in the PV 600
module layers has been studied. Different types of materials of the 40
front and back side of the PV module were tested by considering 400
the effect of the heat transfer coefficient on the front and back side. 30
The developed model was validated based on the experimental data.
200 20

2. Methods and materials 0 10

0 5 10 15 20
2.1. System description Time (h)

The studied PV module is the PV polycrystalline silicon module Fig. 1. Solar radiation, ambient temperature and sky temperature variation for 25
consists of five layers. The system is subject to variable meteoro- June 2020.

244
I. Lamaamar, A. Tilioua and Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

rT 4
Ib ¼ n2 ð3Þ
p
Integrating Eq. (4) over control volume dV:
Z Z Z Z
dIp
dV ¼ rIP :s dV ¼ rðIP :sÞdV ¼ IP ðs:nÞdS ð4Þ
Vp ds Vp VP s

Integrating Eq. (5) over control discrete angle,xl :

Z Z Z Z
Iðs:nÞdSd ¼ x1 VP ½aIb  ða þ rs Þ
wi S
Z   
rs ! !0
þ 4p I/ s : s dX0 dV dx ð5Þ
4p

2.3. Boundary conditions

At the upper interface of PV module, both radiation and convec-

tion losses are taken into account (Eq. (6)):

@T    
kf ¼ hf T amb  T f þ ef F r T 4sky  T 4f ð6Þ
@t
At the lower interface of PV module, both radiation and convec-
tion losses are taken into account (Eq. (7)):

@T
Fig. 2. Different modes of heat transfer in PV module layers with the external kb ¼ hb ðT amb  T b Þ þ eb F rðT 4gr  T 4b Þ ð7Þ
environment. @t
Soil temperature «T gr » was assumed to be equal to ambient
temperature «T gr ». The temperature of the sky could be obtained
mitted to adjacent layers. Fig. 3 represent distribution of the radia- from Eq. (8) [31].
tion flux falling on the glass. The sum of the three radiations, that
absorbed, transmitted and reflected would be equal to the incident T sky ðtÞ ¼ T amb ðtÞ  6 ð8Þ
radiation. Different works have focused their research on the distri- The convection heat transfer coefficient of PV module is related
bution of radiation in a semi-transparent medium [29,30]. Discrete to the wind speed and could be calculated from Eq. (9) and Eq.
ordinate (DO) model is one of models solves radiative heat transfer (10):
problems involving semi-transparent media. In this work, we used
DO model implemented in FLUENT, which uses a conservative hi ¼ 5:7 þ 3:8ui ð9Þ
finite-volume approach and which will be discuss in the section
below.
hi ¼ 6:47 þ ui 0:78 ð10Þ
2.2.3. Discrete ordinate method Eq. (9) is valid for wind speed (ui ) lower than 5 m/s. Eq. (10) is
The radiative transfer equation (RTE) is solved using DO model valid for the wind speed greater than or equal to 5 m/s. These equa-
for discrete solid angle. The implementation of DO model in FLU- tions have been previously used by several researchers to calculate
ENT uses a conservative finite volumes approach. DO model is a the heat transfer coefficient from the top of PV surface [32,33].
comprehensive radiation model that can to take account for most
radiation problems [31]. RTE describes the steady state conserva-
2.4. Computational procedure and mesh dependency test
tion of radiant energy of a single ray traveling in direction S from
position r. RTE equation is shown below with parts of the equation
The model is numerically simulated using the commercial soft-
labeled to provide references for the detailed description to follow:
ware ANSYS FLUENT. The layer properties of PV module have been
!! Z
dIð r ; s Þ rs 4p ! !0 ! !0 appropriately defined in FLUENT ANSYS, and a quadrangular mesh
¼ aIb þ Ið r ; s Þ/ð s : s ÞdX0
ds 4p 0 has been created for the global mesh (see Fig. 4). The mesh depen-
!! dency study was performed in order to improve the accuracy and
 ða þ rs ÞIð r ; s Þ ð2Þ
computation time of the model, i.e., to offer a precise solution inde-
The term Ib describes the gain of intensity due to blackbody pendent of the mesh and to reduce the overall computation time.
emission of medium: For the sake of accuracy of the results, finer meshes with 76.000
elements were used for the reference PV module.

Table 1
Thermo-physical properties PV module layers.

Material’s layers Density (kg/m3) Specific heat (J/kg K) Thermal conductivity (W/m K) Thickness (m)
Glass 3000 500 1.8 0.003
EVA 960 2090 0.35 0.0005
Polycrystalline silicon 2330 677 148 0.0003
TEDLAR 1200 1250 0.2 0.0005

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I. Lamaamar, A. Tilioua and Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

Table 2
Optical properties of PV module layers.

Material’s layers Reflectivity Absorptivity Transitivity Emissivity Refractive index

Glass 0.04 0.04 0.92 0.85 1.526
EVA 0.02 0.08 0.9 – 1.45
Polycrystalline silicon 0.08 0.9 0.02 – 3.69
TEDLAR 0.086 0.128 0.012 0.92 1.45

70
a)
65

Temperature (°C)
60

55

50

45

40
Experiment results
35 Numerical results using DO method
Fig. 3. Distribution of the radiation flux falling on the semi-transparent layer
(Glass). 30
10 12 14 16 18 20
Time (h)
70
b) Present Park
60
Temperature (°C)

50

40
Fig. 4. Meshing to a cross section of the numerical model.
30

2.5. Validation 20

The present study was validated by the experimental data 10

(Fig. 5-a), and the previous experimental study of Park et al. [25]
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
(Fig. 5-b). The results obtained from numerical thermal model
are in good agreement with the measured experimental results.
Time (h)
The developed model also consistent with the results of Park c) 50
et al. [25] as shown in Fig. 5-b. This study is validated also under
the standard NOCT conditions, which requires that the module is 45
in an open space with an ambient temperature Tamb of 20 °C, an
Temperature (°C)

environmental wind speed ‘‘u” of 1 m/s and solar radiation I of 40

800 W/m2 [7] (Fig. 5-c). The nominal operating temperature of
the cells for most commercially available polycrystalline silicon 35
PV module is 45 ± 2 °C according to the manufacturers’ data. How-
ever, the numerical results obtained show that the temperature 30
value is achieved 46.86 °C (Fig. 5-c). It is obvious that such a com-
parative analysis allows testing the reliability and accuracy of the
25 Validation-NOCT solar cells
presently developed model before using it further.
Validation-NOCT front side
20
3. Results and discussion 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00

3.1. Temperature distribution in the PV module: influence of PMMA on Time (h)

the module temperature
Fig. 5. Validation of developed model a) validation of model with the experimental
data from our own field test, b) validation of model with Park et al. [25] and c)
The first layer of the PV module is particularly important validation model under NOCT condition.
because the incident solar radiation falls on this first layer. There-
fore, its composition must satisfy certain conditions that verify
high transmittance, low reflectance and absorbance, and optimal is transparent material and can withstand high pressures [34].
convective losses. In this section, we have replaced glass in the We retained the same glass thickness, which equal to 0.003 m.
PV module (reference module), with PMMA material, which also Fig. 6 shows the evolution of the average temperature for three dif-

246
I. Lamaamar, A. Tilioua and Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

a) 70 is transformed into heat which would be transferred to the solar

cells and the front and back layers. This temperature distribution
generally depends on the thermal properties of the layers consti-
60 tuting the PV module.
Temperature (°C)

Fig. 7 shows the temperature profile across layers of the refer-

50 ence PV module. At 14:45 h, the solar cells reach the maximum
temperature. We notice that the temperature increases with the
40 thickness of the PV module until it reaches its maximum inside
the solar cells. This temperature increase is due to the high absorp-
tion coefficient compared to the other layers, then the temperature
30
decreases at the EVA (bottom) and TEDLAR.
The heat transfer inside the PV module depends mainly on the
20 Front face - Glass thermal parameters of each layer of the PV module (Table 3). For
Front face - PMMA the reference module, the thermal resistance of TEDLAR and EVA
10 (bottom) is higher than that of glass and EVA (top), which allows
0 5 10 15 20 25 the solar cells to exchange heat more easily with EVA (top) and
b) Time (h) glass than with EVA (bottom) and TEDLAR. Therefore, the temper-
70
ature of the front face is higher than that of back face. When the
front side is replaced by the PMMA material, the thermal resistance
60 of PMMA and EVA (top) becomes greater than that of EVA (bottom)
Temperature (°C)

and TEDLAR. The temperature of the back side is lower than the
50 front side, with a high the operating temperature compared to
PV module with glass. Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 describe the temperature
40 distribution into the PV module layers and temperature distribu-
tion of the solar cell layer along the lateral length direction respec-
tively. The operating temperature for PV module with PMMA is
30
high than the reference module, was mainly due to its high trans-
missivity. Moreover, the operating temperature is maximum at the
20 Back face - Glass center of the solar cells (see Fig. 10); it exceeds the border temper-
Back face - PMMA ature by 1 °C. The heat is difficult to propagate in PMMA compared
10 to glass because of its low conductivity.
5 10 15 20 25 The operating temperature of the PV module with a glass layer
Time (h) is lower than that of the PV module with PMMA. Glass possesses a
high conductivity, which is higher than of PMMA 10 times, and
makes the heat transfer easy from the solar cells to the front face
c) 70 of the module, and the module with outside environment. That
renders temperature to be very close to all the points of PV module
as illustrated in Fig. 8. The gap between the front face and the solar
60
cells does not exceed 0.5 °C, whereas with PMMA it reaches almost
Temperature (°C)

4 °C. The difference temperature between the front and rear sides
50 for glass is 0.75 °C and for PMMA 2 °C, this advantage which will
have a significant effect when using one of the cooling techniques.
40

30

63.8
20 PV Cells-Glass Temperature
PV Cells-PMMA 63.6
10
Temperature (°C)

5 10 15 20 25
TEDLAR

Time (h) 63.4

EVA (bottom)

Fig. 6. Average temperature of the PV module in the front face a), back face b) and 63.2
solar cell c).
EVA (top)
PV cells
Glass

63.0
ferent locations, namely the front side, the back side and at the
solar cells. We notice that the temperature evolution of the front 62.8
side (Fig. 6-a) of the PV module for both types of materials glass
and PMMA is almost the same, at a certain point, the temperature
62.6
of glass exceeds that of PMMA and the inverse for the back side
(Fig. 6-b). Whereas the temperature of the PV cells in the case of 0.000 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005
PMMA material exceeds that of the glass material (Fig. 6-c). When
the cells temperature reaches its maximum in a particular Thickness (m)
moment, this can be explained by the conditions of energy conver-
sion which are not favorable for electricity production. The energy Fig. 7. Temperature distribution in the PV panel.

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I. Lamaamar, A. Tilioua and Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

Table 3
Conduction thermal resistance of PV module layers.
a) 64.5

Material’s layers Conduction thermal resistance m2

K/W 64.0

Temperature (°C)
-4
Glass 16.67  10
PMMA 16.67  10-3
EVA 14.29  10-4
63.5
Polycrystalline silicon 20.27  10-7
TEDLAR 25  10-4
63.0
Glass 0.004
PMMA 0.004
62.5
64.5 Glass 0.003
PMMA 0.003
64.0 62.0
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
Temperature (°C)

63.5 Glass Thickness (m)

EVA (bottom)

63.0 64.5
b)
PV Cells
EVA (top)

TEDLAR
A
M

62.5 64.0
PM

Temperature (°C)
62.0 63.5

63.0
61.5
62.5
0.000 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005
Thickness (m) 62.0
Glass 0.004
61.5 PMMA 0.004
Fig. 8. Temperature distribution of PV module with two different front face
materials. Glass 0.003
61.0
PMMA 0.003
60.5
64.4 0.000 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005 0.006
Glass
64.2 PMMA Thickness (m)
64.0
Temperature (°C)

Fig. 10. Temperature distribution: a) The solar cell layer along the lateral length
63.8 direction with two different front face materials in two sizes, and b) In the PV
module with two different front face materials in two sizes.
63.6
63.4
are plotted in Fig. 10. The operating temperature of the PV module
63.2
decreases for PMMA and glass with increasing thickness. Further-
63.0 more, we notice that when the thickness of glass or PMMA
increases, the transmittance and convective losses decrease, while
62.8
the reflectance increases and vice versa.
62.6 From the obtained results, and despite all the advantages of
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 PMMA, such as its high resistance to shocks, cracks and scratches,
Thickness (m) its low density, which is less than half that of glass, which makes it
lighter, the operating temperature of the PV module in the pres-
ence of glass is lower than that of PMMA. The thickness of the first
Fig. 9. Temperature distribution in the solar cell with two different front face
materials. layer of the PV module has a very important role in relation to the
incident solar radiation. We noticed that the thickness of 4 cm of
the first layer gives an optimal transmittance and convective losses
3.2. Influence of the thickness of the first layer on the temperature of compared to the thickness of 3 cm. Therefore, the operating tem-
the module perature of the module decreases.

To improve the heat transfer in the PV module with a low oper-

ating temperature, we varied the thickness of the first layer from 3.3. Temperature distribution in the PV module: influence of back sheet
0.003 m to 0.004 m, always maintaining the same thermo- material on the module temperature and effect of thickness on the
physical and optical properties of the glass and PMMA. We com- layers
pared the obtained results in the case where the first layer is glass
and then PMMA. We choose a precise moment, when the solar cells Three different materials, aluminum, glass, and PMMA, were
attain a maximum temperature. tested as back sheet of PV module to investigated their influence
The temperature distribution along the layers of the PV module, on PV module’s temperature distribution. We investigate the mate-
and the temperature variation along the entire length of the cells rial that facilitates the heat exchange between the solar cells and
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I. Lamaamar, A. Tilioua and Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

a) 64.2 b) 64.2
64.0 64.0
63.8 63.8
Temperature (°C)

Temperature (°C)
63.6 63.6
63.4
63.4
63.2
63.2
63.0
63.0 Tedlar
62.8 Tedlar
62.8 Aluminum
62.6 Aluminum
PMMA
62.4 PMMA 62.6
Glass
Glass
62.2 62.4
0.000 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005 0.006 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12
Thickness (m) Thickness (m)

c) 64.2 d) 64.2
64.0 64.0
63.8 63.8
Temperature (°C)

Temperature (°C)
63.6 63.6
63.4 63.4
63.2 63.2
63.0 63.0
Tedlar Tedlar
62.8 Aluminum 62.8 Aluminum
62.6 PMMA 62.6 PMMA
Glass Glass
62.4 62.4
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
Thickness (m) Thickness (m)

Fig. 11. Temperature distribution along the thickness of the PV module for different materials with a thickness 0.0005 m and temperature distribution in the solar cell with
four different back sheet materials in three sizes: b) 0.0005 m, b) 0.00075 m, and c) 0.001 m.

tivity of PMMA and TEDLAR conducts to a poor heat exchange to

63.3 the outside environment. While the glass, give the good results
compared to TEDLAR and PMMA, but glass is very fragile, which
63.2 requires more thickness. As the thickness increases, the thermal
resistance also increases, and the heat transfer becomes difficult.
Temperature (°C)

Aluminum had a better effect on keeping the module temperature

63.1
low compared to TEDLAR and PMMA, it is considered good for heat
exchanger with the outside environment due to its high conductiv-
63.0 ity. According to Table 4, we notice that aluminum has a low ther-
mal resistance for a thickness of 0.0005 m, which results that the
62.9 Aluminum - 0.002 heat transfer exchange would be easy from the solar cells to the
Aluminum - 0.001 back side. Besides, aluminum has an excellent barrier to the trans-
62.8 Aluminum - 0.00075 mission of heat by radiation. Its emissivity is of about 0.09, it
Aluminum - 0.0005 absorbs only 9% of the heat and it reflects nearly 89% of the radia-
tion that reaches them. The other advantage given by aluminum is
62.7
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 that the temperature along the solar cells is roughly uniform,
unlike the other tested materials, which presented an increase in
Thickness temperature approaching the center of the cells.

Fig. 12. Temperature variation along the length of the solar cells due to different
thicknesses of the aluminum layer. 3.4. Temperature distribution in the PV module: back sheet thickness
influence on the module temperature

the external environment and thus reduce the operating tempera- The results of the effect of thickness on the temperature distri-
ture of the PV module. The variation of the operating temperature bution in the PV panel are presented in Fig. 11. In addition, Fig. 11-
when the solar cell reaches their maximum temperature are plot- a) describes the temperature distribution in the PV module for dif-
ted in Fig. 11. Besides, Fig. 12 represent the temperature variation ferent types of materials and Fig. 11-b), Fig. 11-c) and Fig. 11-d)
along the entire length of the cell with different materials back show the temperature variation for along the lateral length direc-
sheet. The lowest operating temperature is attributed to aluminum tion of solar cells these for thicknesses 0.0005 m, 0.00075 m, and
sheet, followed by glass, TEDLAR and then PMMA. The low conduc- 0.001 m, respectively. For TEDLAR, PMMA, and glass, the thermal
249
I. Lamaamar, A. Tilioua and Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

Table 4
Conduction thermal resistance to different materials of back sheet with different a) 63.0
Temperature
sizes.
62.9
Material’s Conduction Conduction Conduction

Temperature (°C)
layers thermal resistance thermal resistance thermal resistance 62.8
m2 K/W m2 K/W m2 K/W
0.0005 m 0.00075 m 0.001 m
62.7
Glass 27.78  10-5 41.66  10-5 55.55  10-4
PMMA 27.78  10-4 41.66  10-4 55.55  10-4 62.6
TEDLAR 25  10-4 37.5  10-4 5  10-3
Aluminium 23.7  10-7 35.54  10-7 47.4  10-7 62.5

62.4

resistance would increase with the back sheet thickness increasing 62.3
and that increase of the thermal resistance led to weakness in heat 0.000 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005 0.006
transfer of back sheet was more significant, and a poor exchange
with outside environment, consequently leading to the module Thickness (m)
temperature increasing. In contrast to other materials, when the 63.8
thickness of aluminum increases, the operating temperature drops.
b) Temperature
Aluminum sheet would be excellent solution for cooling the PV 63.6

Temperature (°C)
module. From Fig. 12, the change of back sheet thickness almost
had no effect on module’s temperature distribution when using 63.4
aluminum alloy back sheet.
63.2
3.5. Optimal thickness and layer for both front and backsides
63.0
The heat transfer between the layers of the PV modules and
between the boundary faces and the external environment can 62.8
be improved by changing either the type of material, or its thick-
ness, or both. The glass thickness of the PV module was increased 62.6
by 0.004 m and the back sheet of TEDLAR was replaced by alu-
0.000 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005
minum. The aluminum thickness used as the back sheet is
0.002 m. A precise time has been chosen when the solar cells reach Thickness (m)
their maximum temperature. Fig. 13 describes the temperature
distribution along the length of the solar cells at 14:48 h. A PV Fig. 14. (a) Temperature distribution in the PV module with the glass thickness is
module with a glass layer of 0.004 m and an aluminum back layer 0.004 m and aluminum thickness are 0.002 m, (b) Temperature distribution for a
reference PV module.
of 0.002 m has a low operating temperature, which is about 1 °C
lower than the reference PV temperature. The temperature of the
back side exceeds that of the front side. It is due to the fact that other. The heat transfer between layers and the heat exchange
the fact that the heat is easily propagated to the back side thanks with the external environment is better compared to the reference
to the low thermal resistance of the layers located at the back of module. These advantages will have a beneficial effect when it
the solar cells. From Fig. 14, we notice that the temperatures of comes to choosing whether to use one of the PV module cooling
the solar cells and the front and backside are very close to each techniques by focusing on the front or back side.

63.8 4. Conclusion

63.6 A numerical study for the evaluation of the thermal perfor-

Temperature (°C)

63.4 mance of a PV module by using a two-dimensional thermal model

based on the finite volume method was presented. The results
63.2 obtained showed that the thickness of the materials constituting
the front and back layers of the PV module have a significant influ-
63.0 ence on the temperature distribution of the module and more
specifically on the solar cell temperature. Two materials were
62.8
tested: PMMA and glass. The temperature difference between the
62.6 front and the PV cells is 0.5 °C and between the PV cells and the
back side is 1.1 °C. It was found that the PV module with a glass
62.4 Optimal PV module front layer is more efficient compared to a PV module with a
Reference PV module PMMA front layer. When the thickness of the glass front layer
62.2 increases from 0.003 m to 0.004 m, the PV module temperature
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
also decreases. However, it was noticed that aluminum is a good
Thickness (m) alternative of TEDLAR in the PV module. Thanks to its higher ther-
mal conductivity, the exchange of heat transfer with the outside
Fig. 13. Operating temperature variation along the length of the solar cells of the environment is easy and the operating temperature of the PV mod-
reference PV module and optimal PV module. ule decreases.
250
I. Lamaamar, A. Tilioua and Moulay Ahmed Hamdi Alaoui Materials Science for Energy Technologies 5 (2022) 243–251

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