TY - JOUR
T1 - Adaptation of a photovoltaic energy balance model for rooftop applications
AU - Heusinger, Jannik
AU - Broadbent, Ashley M.
AU - Krayenhoff, E. Scott
AU - Weber, Stephan
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to express our gratitude to Lars Altendorf of the building management department of Technische Universität, Braunschweig for providing access to the studied rooftop PV array as well as for providing electricity data for model evaluation. We would also like to thank Hagen Mittendorf (Climatology and Environmental Meteorology group, Technische Universität Braunschweig) for the measurement station setup. Ashley Broadbent's contribution was partially supported by the National Science Foundation award CBET-1940781 .
Funding Information:
We would like to express our gratitude to Lars Altendorf of the building management department of Technische Universität, Braunschweig for providing access to the studied rooftop PV array as well as for providing electricity data for model evaluation. We would also like to thank Hagen Mittendorf (Climatology and Environmental Meteorology group, Technische Universität Braunschweig) for the measurement station setup. Ashley Broadbent's contribution was partially supported by the National Science Foundation award CBET-1940781.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - In this study we adapted and evaluated the utility-scale photovoltaic energy balance model UCRC-Solar for rooftop scenarios. The most important modification is related to the sensible heat exchange. Different modifications are tested and evaluated against measured surface temperatures and power production of a rooftop photovoltaic (PV) module on a tilted roof in Braunschweig, Germany. Strong agreement with an RMSE of 2.7 K and 4 W, respectively, for highly varying meteorological conditions, is achieved by assuming boundary layer development over the PV modules which modulates their convective heat exchange with the atmosphere. The model error is related to the wind direction and turbulent kinetic energy. A higher model error is found for wind directions corresponding to upwind built structures with larger relative roughness. We deem the adapted model, UCRC-Solarroof to be suitable to calculate module temperatures and sensible heat fluxes of individual modules as well as the average of PV arrays on tilted roofs for different roof sizes. UCRC-Solarroof is applied to compare module temperatures, sensible heat fluxes and power production from urban, rooftop PV arrays to rural, ground-based modules. The main causal factor for elevated module temperature on rooftop PV modules relative to their rural, utility-scale counterparts is the smaller sensible heat flux at the lower side of the rooftop PV modules as a result of their proximity to the roof. UCRC-Solarroof has the potential to be integrated in micro-to macroscale meteorological and climate models as well as building energy simulation tools.
AB - In this study we adapted and evaluated the utility-scale photovoltaic energy balance model UCRC-Solar for rooftop scenarios. The most important modification is related to the sensible heat exchange. Different modifications are tested and evaluated against measured surface temperatures and power production of a rooftop photovoltaic (PV) module on a tilted roof in Braunschweig, Germany. Strong agreement with an RMSE of 2.7 K and 4 W, respectively, for highly varying meteorological conditions, is achieved by assuming boundary layer development over the PV modules which modulates their convective heat exchange with the atmosphere. The model error is related to the wind direction and turbulent kinetic energy. A higher model error is found for wind directions corresponding to upwind built structures with larger relative roughness. We deem the adapted model, UCRC-Solarroof to be suitable to calculate module temperatures and sensible heat fluxes of individual modules as well as the average of PV arrays on tilted roofs for different roof sizes. UCRC-Solarroof is applied to compare module temperatures, sensible heat fluxes and power production from urban, rooftop PV arrays to rural, ground-based modules. The main causal factor for elevated module temperature on rooftop PV modules relative to their rural, utility-scale counterparts is the smaller sensible heat flux at the lower side of the rooftop PV modules as a result of their proximity to the roof. UCRC-Solarroof has the potential to be integrated in micro-to macroscale meteorological and climate models as well as building energy simulation tools.
KW - PV module temperature
KW - Power generation
KW - Renewable energy
KW - Rooftop PV
KW - Thermal characteristics
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U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107628
DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107628
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100415536
SN - 0360-1323
VL - 192
JO - Building and Environment
JF - Building and Environment
M1 - 107628
ER -