Comparison of the surface temperatures of photovoltaic solar panels and a new model suggestion

Increased surface temperature in PV panels affects the efficiency of electricity production negatively. The accurate prediction of module temperature plays an important role in the economic and energy assessment of photovoltaic systems. The main objective of this study is to validate the sensitivity of implicit correlations for the module temperature of photovoltaic panels. A total of seventeen different implicit correlations have been examined by employing actual data from a solar power plant in order to evaluate temperature deviations with respect to ambient temperature, solar radiation and wind speed. Under actual power plant working conditions, the results for the reviewed correlations gave quite different results. The trends for the temperature differences between the correlations and the actual data due to variations in solar radiation intensity were determined. Seventeen correlations were modified according to temperature deviation tendencies based on global solar radiation and eleven new correlations were introduced. Correlation correlations can be easily adapted to programs such as Matlab simulation in calculating the performance of photovoltaic systems.