Thermodynamic analysis of Photovoltaic

Systems

Submitted by
Abhishek Raj Urs K N
1000988334
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
University of Texas, Arlington

Under the guidance of

Dr. Hyejin Moon
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
University of Texas, Arlington

Contents

Introduction

Necessity for solar energy

Environmental effects
Solar Technologies
Photovoltaic Solar panels

Solar Characteristics

Solar Spectrum
Intensity and Energy
Surface orientation
Attenuation
Diffusion

Characteristics of PV Modules

Measurements
Principle of Operation
Band Gap and Response rate
Performance and Energy loses

Energy and Exergy

List of Figures

Figure 1: Potential for renewable energy sources.

Figure 2: Energy supply sources
Figure 3: Nest on a solar PV panel
Figure 4: Solar Technologies
Figure 5: Example of a PV system
Figure 6: PV efficiency improvements in future
Figure 7: Expenditure of PV around the world
Figure 8: Expectation of PV capacity growth
Figure 9: Growth in recent years
Figure 10: Solar Spectrum
Figure 11: Angle of Incidence
Figure 12: Equivalent circuit of a solar cell.
Figure 13: Band gap and Operation
Figure 14: Energy Loses in PV systems
Figure 15: Energy Loses in PV systems

Necessity for Solar Energy

Solar Energy is renewable source of energy. It's abundant availability

throughout the world can be used as a substitute to overcome the
diminishing renewable sources. Most of the power generated nowadays are
obtained from fossil fuels which are diminishing at a very quick pace. Also,
these fossil fuels are responsible for the increasing pollution rapidly by
emitting poisonous gases like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide etc.
Energy obtained from renewable energy sources like solar energy, wind
energy, tidal energy etc are clean energy sources. They do not produce
harmful gases during the operation, hence protect the environment. In
recent years, there has been an increasing demand for clean energy sources,
which resulted in rapid growth in solar energy industry in the market. Solar
energy when compared to other renewable clean energy sources has a
higher potential to overcome the energy needs of the world.

Fig 1: Potential for renewable energy sources.

Solar energy is the primary origins for all other energy sources like tidal
energy, fossil fuel, hydro energy, biomass etc. Solar energy falls on the
surface of the earth at a rate of 120 petawatts, which is the solar energy
received from sun in one day can be used to overcome the world energy
requirements for 20 years. Fig 1 shows the potential for some of the
renewable energy sources based on today's technology. Future advances in
the technology will lead to higher potential for each energy source.

In solar technology department, there are many devices that directly convert
solar energy into electrical or thermal energy. Photo-voltaic cells and
concentrated solar power systems are some of those devices. For a specific
geographic location, a particular solar technology system has to be
incorporated in order to achieve maximum efficiency out of the device.
There are a wide range of applications for solar energy. For instance it can
used for controlling room temperature, solar desalination, solar propulsion,
photochemical applications, electricity generation etc. Solar energy can
easily be converted into electrical energy which again has a lot of
applications. Electrical energy is a high grade energy, which means it can
further be converted to other energy forms easily. Therefore it has attracted
a lot of researchers as electrical energy consumption is continuously
increasing.

Fig 2: Energy supply sources.

Environmental Aspects

Solar Energy is clean source of renewable energy. During the operation it

does not emit any potentially harmful gas like carbon dioxide, hydro-carbons,
carbon monoxide etc. Most of the materials used these operations are made
of silicon or other earth metal/nonmetals. They are abundantly available and
environmentally safe.

Fig 3: Nest on a Solar PV Panel

In the above figure we can see that birds have located their nest on the PV
panels. The above PV station is located in Merced, CA. These PV stations are
usually located on wide barren lands with adequate sunlight throughout the
year to trap maximum solar energy.
However not all of the solar technologies are toxic free. Few technologies
which achieve relatively higher work efficiency and work on this concept
involve toxic materials like gallium arsenide or cadmium telluride. These can
cause severe harm to the environment if leaked. So care has to be taken to
avoid these drawbacks.

Solar Technologies
Currently there are several kinds of solar technologies. They basically differ
from the converting efficiency and materials used, but the concept behind
most of them remain the same. Each of those particular methods have their
own drawbacks and advantages. Certain methods prove to be more efficient
only when it is used at a particular location or at specific set of conditions.
The figure below gives us a broad idea about the different solar technologies
that are being used for energy production/conversion. Out of these, the most
broadly used methods are Photovoltaic solar panels and concentrated solar
power systems. However, in the recent years a lot of research has been
made in concentrated photovoltaic systems and solar thermoelectricity
systems. They are emerging to be more energy converting efficient and
claim a significant share of solar energy market.

Fig 4: Solar Technologies

Photovoltaic Solar Panels

Photovoltaic's is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar

radiation into direct current using semiconductor materials that exhibit
photovoltaic effect.
Photovoltaic effect is defined as the process in which solar energy is
converted into electrical energy upon exposure to light. In most of the
photovoltaic applications, radiation used is the sunlight and the devices used
to convert the radiation are known as solar cells.
Photovoltaic panels are composed of a large number of solar cells which in
turn are made of photovoltaic material. Some of the materials used for
photovoltaic's are mono-crystalline silicon, poly-crystalline silicon,
amorphous
silicon,
cadmium
telluride,
copper
indium
gallium
selenide/sulfide.

Fig 5: Example of a PV System

The working principle of a photovoltaic material is based on 'Hertz Effect'.

When electro-magnetic radiation of short wavelength fall on the surface of a
photovoltaic material, electrons are emitted as a result of absorbing energy
from these radiations[Visible Spectrum, UV radiation]. These emitted
electrons are known as photo-electrons. These photo-electrons are captured
and hence direct electric current is obtained.
Types of PV panels:

Crystalline Silicon
Thin Films
Semiconductor thin films

The figure below shows us the expectation of photovoltaic's efficiency

improvement over time. PV systems have reached a global capacity of
40,000 MW at the end of 2010 which is about 3% of the whole renewable
energy capacity.

Fig 6: PV efficiency improvements in future

The following figures summarize the world data on PV technology including
distribution, capacity and cost.

Fig 7: Expenditure of PV around the world

Fig 8: Expectation of PV capacity growth

Photovoltaic technologies are most commonly used solar technologies. They

will continuously grow and see rapid changes. Each of these technologies
have their own pro's and con's. Even despite the rapid development of these
technologies, they have many disadvantages that need to be solved.
Solar electricity is still more expensive compared to other small scale
alternate energy production. Solar systems do not produce electricity at
night and have less efficiency at cloudy conditions. Also the efficiency
depends party on the location as well.

Fig 9: Growth of PV capacity in recent years

Solar Characteristics

Solar Spectrum
The Energy in solar irradiation comes in the form of electromagnetic
radiation. We know that longer wavelength radiation have lesser energy than
shorter ones such as UV light or visible light. The figure below shows us the
spectral distribution and also relative weights of individual wavelengths.

Fig 10: Solar Spectrum

Intensity and Energy
Irradiance is defined as the intensity of the solar radiation hitting the surface.
It is the sum of contributions of all wavelengths within the spectrum. Power is
the total irradiance on a particular area. Also, energy is measure of
irradiance incident on a surface over a period of time
Surface Orientation
Amount of energy obtained by the PV cell is directly proportional to the area
of the radiation wave-front it intercepts. In order to obtain maximum energy,
the radiation should be perpendicular to the collector. This happens only on

the equator; hence the collector must be tilted in an angle to receive

maximum insolation.
I () =I Cos ()

Fig 11: Angle of Incidence

Attenuation
To express the amount of intensity that is lost through absorption, the clarity
index is defined as the ratio between the observed (global) hourly irradiance
on earth, Hg, and the hourly radiation Ho just outside the atmosphere.
Typical values for k are 0.6-0.8 at clear sky and 0.1-0.3 on cloudy sky.
K = Hg/Ho

Diffusion
Direct beam radiation is one which strikes the surface from one angle only,
directly from the sun. Conversely, diffuse light as a result of absorption and
scattering, approaches the horizontal surface from almost any angle. Hence
it cannot be focused or concentrated.
Hg = H (beam) + H (diffuse)
Kd = H (diffuse)/Hg

Characteristics of PV modules

Cells, Modules, Panels and Arrays

Cells are basic photovoltaic devices that are building blocks of PV modules.
These cells can be round or square and are too small to do much work alone.
They usually produce about volt. Generally 36 of these cells are connected
in series to charge batteries or motors.
Modules are a group of PV cells connected in series or in parallel to obtain
more current or volts. They are encapsulated with a protective glass
laminate. Encapsulation is the method in which PV cells are protected from
the environment with glass laminate.
Panel is a group of modules connected in series or in parallel to obtain much
higher current or voltage. Modules are the basic building blocks of these
panels. And these panels combined together constitute a complete PV
generating unit called as an PV array. These arrays are usually mounted on
ground or support on suitable geographic locations to obtain maximum
efficiency.

Fig 12: Cell, Module and Array

Measurements
Maximum power the PV module is capable of delivering is defined as Rated
Power. The power obtained by the PV module when it is operating on
standard radiation conditions is known as peak power. The rate at which the
PV cell converts solar energy into electrical energy is known as cell efficiency.
Principle of operation
Working principle of a typical photovoltaic cell can be explained considering
light is made up of particles called photons. These photons are packets of
energy. When these packets of energy hit the solar panels, the energy is
absorbed by the materials which constitute the panels.
As a result of this, electrons are emitted from their atoms because of
excitation. These emitted electrons are made to move in single direction
inside the panels. Hence a lot of electrons are obtained through array of solar
panels. These electrons constitute direct current which is then collected and
stored.

The photons which strike the solar panels pass through the panels get
reflected back to the atmosphere or get absorbed by the semiconducting
material inside the panel. These photons get absorbed only if the energy is
more than band gap value of the material.
These absorbed photons, give energy to the electrons in the valence bond.
Thus exciting them and moving them to the conduction band, where it is free
to move and hence constitutes DC.

Fig 13: Equivalent circuit of a solar cell.

Where, Id= diode current, IL= photo generated current, Ish= shunt current, I
=output current.

Fig 14: Band Gap and Operation

Here, p-type and n-type layers join at the p-n junction, electrons and holes
diffuse to create the charge free depletion zone. Moreover, the junction

creates a slope in the resulting energy bands. Now, when a photon promotes
an electron to the conduction band, it can "roll down" through the depletion
zone into a lower energy band rather than instantly re-combine with a hole.
This is what generates the photo current.

Band Gap and Response Rate

The band gap, which is the minimum energy required to excite an electron
out of the valence band varies by material. It is usually expressed in units of
"electron Volts" where "one electron" is the elementary charge, e. To convert
electron-Volts into wavelengths of incoming light, we have,
= ch/eb
Where, c = speed of light, h = Planks constant, b = band gap (ev), =
wavelength (m), e = electron charge.
Response rate measures the ability of the material to convert light into
electric current. In reality, the photo effect is not like an on/off switch
depending on the energy of the photon. At longer wavelengths, electrons
may still flow due to energy from ambient temperature. On the other hand,
short wave photons may not be able to be absorbed, as they have too much
energy.
= Electric current/irradiance.

Performance and Energy loses

Yearly sum of irradiation (h) that falls on the module is dependent on the
geographic location and can be obtained from databases or irradiance map.
Performance ratio is defined as the ratio between actual yield and target
yield. Here, target yield is the theoretical annual energy production
considering nominal efficiency only. This ratio is also known as quality factor
and is used to compare systems.
Quality Factor (PR) = Actual yield/ theoretical yield
E/A = PRh [ (nom)]

Where, h = irradiance, PR = Quality factor, = nominal module efficiency,

Energy delivered by the system.
It is evident that no system in the universe is 100% efficient. There are
always loses incurring within the system or from outside, leading to reduced
efficiencies. Major energy loses occurring in these systems are, prephotovoltaic losses, module and thermal loses, and system loses.

Fig 15: Energy loses in PV systems

Fig 16: Energy Loses in PV systems

Energy and Exergy Analysis

Energy is the measure of quantity, dependent on parameters of matter or

energy flow only. It is independent of the environmental parameters. It is
guided by the first law of thermodynamics for all processes.
Exergy is the measure of both quantity and quality, dependent both on
parameters of matter and energy flow and on the environmental parameters.
Exergy is guided by the first and second law of thermodynamics for all
irreversible processes.