Avaliação da influência da temperatura na eficiência de módulo fotovoltaico sobre estrutura flutuante

Abstract

Solar energy is considered one of the most promising energy alternatives today and its application in photovoltaic (PV) plants has grown worldwide to generate electricity. As a limiting factor in the PV generation process, high operating temperatures of the PV modules cause a reduction in their energy conversion efficiency. Using this motivation, this dissertation aims to evaluate the efficiency of PV modules installed on floating structures in water as a function of the temperature gradient by the heat exchange with the environment. Two experiments were carried out in the Alternative Energy Laboratory of the Federal University of Ceará (LEA - UFC), using two 20 Wp polycrystalline PV model KS20T modules. In the two phases of the experiment one of the modules was installed on the ground and the second one installed on a floating structure in a tank with water. In the first phase, the influence of the distance between the floating PV module and the water surface on the panel temperature was analyzed, changing this distance and collecting the temperature data through a programmable logic controller (PLC), using sensors temperature PT-100. Data were collected for distances between the water and the PV module of 7.5 cm, 6.0 cm, 4.5 cm and 3.0 cm. In the second stage of the experiment, a PVC float was proposed to install the PV module and evaluated its effective generation of electric energy. After 30 days of data acquisition it was possible to verify an average gross gain of 5.09% of electric power generated from the floating module, comparing with the module on the ground. The floating PV module presented a gain in relation to the ground module in 70% of the analyzed days, of which 66.67% were days that presented daily irradiance values above 3.0 kWh / m².