A thermal model for amorphous silicon photovoltaic integrated in ETFE cushion roofs

• A thermal model is proposed to estimate temperature of a-Si PV integrated in ETFE cushion.
• Nonlinear equation is solved by Runge–Kutta method integrated in a new program.
• Temperature profiles varying with weather conditions are obtained and analyzed.
• Numerical results are in good line with experimental results with coefficients of 0.821–0.985.
• Reasons for temperature difference of 0.9–4.6 K are solar irradiance and varying parameters.

Temperature characteristics of amorphous silicon photovoltaic (a-Si PV) integrated in building roofs (e.g. the ETFE cushions) are indispensible for evaluating the thermal performances of a-Si PV and buildings. To investigate the temperature characteristics and temperature value, field experiments and numerical modeling were performed and compared in this paper. An experimental mock-up composed of a-Si PV and a three-layer ETFE cushion structure was constructed and experiments were carried out under four typical weather conditions (winter sunny, winter cloudy, summer sunny and summer cloudy). The measured solar irradiance and air temperature were used as the real weather conditions for the thermal model. On the other side, a theoretical thermal model was developed based on energy balance equation which was expressed as that absorbed energy was equal to converted energy and energy loss. The corresponding differential equation of PV temperature varying with weather conditions was solved by the Runge–Kutta method.The comparisons between the experimental and numerical results were focusing on the temperature characteristics and temperature value. For the temperature characteristics, good agreement was obtained by correlation analysis with the coefficients of 0.821–0.985, which validated the feasibility of the thermal model. For the temperature value, the temperature difference between the experimental and numerical results was only 0.9–4.6 K and the reasons could be the dramatical solar irradiance fluctuation and the varying parameters under cloudy conditions.This paper extends the investigation on temperature to the a-Si PV integrated in ETFE cushion roof. It could provide useful observations and explanations for evaluating the PV and building performances concerning the temperature.