A simple correlation for the operating temperature of photovoltaic modules of arbitrary mounting

Following a brief discussion regarding the operating temperature of commercial grade silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells/modules and its effect upon the performance of free-standing one-sun PV installations, a simple semi-empirical explicit correlation for PV cell temperature and the corresponding efficiency form are proposed for modules of arbitrary mounting. To this end, a dimensionless mounting parameter, a), is introduced rendering the correlations suitable for systems like building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) array generators. The implications of ignoring radiation and free-convection are quantified and a comparison is made with analogous relations in the literature. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.