Performance Evaluation and Prediction of BIPV Systems under Partial Shading Conditions Using Normalized Efficiency

Abstract

The performance of the Operable Building Integrated Photovoltaic (OBIPV) system applied to the building envelope to reduce the building energy consumption varies significantly depending on the operation method and influence of the surrounding environment. Therefore, optimization through performance monitoring is necessary to maximize power generation of the system. This study used temperature-corrected normalized efficiency (NE*) to evaluate the power generation performance of the operation methods and predict that of the OBIPV system based upon the measured data. It was confirmed that power generation performance decreased when the photovoltaic (PV) operation angle changed, the system remaining the same. A decrease in power generation performance due to partial shading from an overhang was also observed. As a result of the power generation prediction for two months using NE*, the error of the measured values was found to be less than 3%. In addition, with or without any partial shading of the OBIPV system, its performance degradation was predicted with an annual electricity generation decrease by 36 kWh/yr (6.5%). Therefore, NE* can be used as an indicator for evaluating the power generation performance of PV systems, and to predict generation performance considering partial shading.

Keywords

• temperature corrected normalized efficiency
• operable building integrated photovoltaic systems
• partial shading
• pv power prediction
• performance ratio