*
Corresponding author: Soltana Guesmi, Laboratory of Electronic Systems & Sustainable Energy (ESSE),
1
National Engineering School of Sfax 3038 Sfax, Tunisia, E-mail: soltana.guesmi@enis.tn
2
Laboratory of Electronic Systems & Sustainable Energy (ESSE), National School of Electronics and
Telecommunications. B.P 1163, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia.
Copyright © JES 2020 on-line : journal.esrgroups.org/jes
Soltana Guesmi
1,*
,
Kais Jamoussi
2
,
Moez Ghariani
2
Regular paper
!
"
Keywords: Photovoltaic cells, efficiency, module temperature, electrical thermal model, heat transfer
mechanisms, air cooling system.
Article history: Received 23 December 2019, Accepted 12 May 2020
1. Introduction
Nowadays, photovoltaics represents an important stake in energies and more generally in
renewable energies. The photovoltaic solar energy is a clean energy source that allows a
direct conversion of solar radiation into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Besides, the
conversion by photovoltaic effect does not present any noise nuisance and has no negative
impact on the ecosystem. However, under strong solar irradiation, the efficiency of solar cells
decreases because of the high operating temperature, which can reach 70 ° C [1, 2]. Power
losses of 0.2% to 0.5% per Kelvin difference to 25°C (standard testing conditions STC) are
the typical and nominal module operating temperature (NMOT) [3]. Therefore, power losses
of which due to the rise in temperature can be predicted in module temperature [4].
Water-based cooling systems are designed to cool cells. Unfortunately, these systems are
not durable, costly, and sometimes cannot be integrated into solar cells [5, 6]. In order to
reduce the internal temperature of the photovoltaic cell, an external temperature is forced into
the cell by using an air-cooling system. Therefore, in the present work, we introduce a new
study based on an electrical and thermal model for photovoltaic in terms of reduction of
internal temperature. An electrical model is used to analyse the electrical behaviour and found
that the higher is the temperature, the lower is the PV module production. In this study, the
other conditions (e.g., solar irradiance, wind, humidity, etc.) are constant. Then, a flexible
thermal model is, therefore, necessary to analyze the heat transfer mechanisms in PV modules
such as conduction, convection, and radiation and their effects on the encapsulant curing. We
present such a model and show results regarding the calculation of module temperatures after
the resolution of the heat balance equation.
For validation, we compare the electrical performance of the PV cell with and without a
cooling system. In this context, we have selected the “SPR- 455J-WHT-D “of SunPower