[10p-W611-1~14] 16.3 Bulk, thin-film and other silicon-based solar cells

[10p-W611-13] Comparison of the Outdoor Performance of Cylindrical and Rectangular PV Modules

〇Hiroshi Noge¹, Makoto Konagai¹, Taizo Masuda², Akinori Sato² (1.Tokyo City Univ., 2.Toyota Motor Co.)

Keywords:photovoltaics, outdoor measurement, module shape

We have compared the performance of cylindrical and rectangular PV modules by simulation and outdoor measurements, assuming the independent power system on the road where the available space is limited. Although the larger drop of the output for the rectangular module around noon is predicted from the direct irradiation simulation, it has been found that the drop became smaller owing to the scattered irradiation in the outdoor environment and the total outputs per day and per side-wall area were almost the same for the both shapes of modules. Consequently, the required space is 0.785 times smaller for the rectangular module with the same peripheral length as that of the cylinder, however, the required fixing load against the wind is less than 1/3 for the cylindrical module due to its small wind pressure constant.