Exergy analysis of thin-film solar PV module in ground-mount, floating and submerged installation methods

Abstract

The scope for water-based photovoltaic (WPV) installations has raised questions related to its performance in comparison to traditional land-based photovoltaic (LPV) installations. In literature, few studies exist, and they mainly highlighted the performance of WPV and LPV based on energy analysis but fails to give a detailed understanding. In this paper, the exergy based parametric approach is used to understand the realistic performance and the energy conversion process of the photovoltaic (PV) module in both water and land environments. Three amorphous silicon thin-film PV modules installed in ground-mount PV (GMPV), floating PV (FPV), and submerged PV (SPV) methods are considered for experimentation to understand the exergy performance. The experimental results show that the exergy efficiency is varied for each installation method. It is observed that the exergy efficiency of SPV is 3.07% higher than the FPV and 43.65% higher than GMPV installation methods, respectively. Overall, the thermodynamic analysis of the thin-film PV module provided in this study delivered a critical understanding of the performance, and this study will serve as a useful reference in selecting the best installation methods.

Keywords

• Thin-film solar cells
• Thermal losses
• Exergy efficiency
• Ground mount photovoltaics
• Floating photovoltaics
• Submerged photovoltaics