Semi-transparent building integrated photovoltaic panel: performance evaluation in Arusha tropics,Tanzania

Abstract

The performance of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) semi-transparent windows on facades for office building has been investigated in Tanzania’s tropical climate. Integrating semi-transparent BIPV with windows permits multifunctional performance improvements as energy generation and allowing light natural to enter the building, hence total energy efficiency enhancement. The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of the semi-transparent BIPV on office buildings applications. An experiment was set up at the Innovation Technological and Energy Center (iTEC), Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), Arusha, Tanzania. Measurement of weather parameters, which are solar irradiance, outdoor air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, was taken based on various conditions, cloudy, normal and clear sky days on the assessment of the performance of the system. The experimental set-up consisted of building integrated silicon mono crystalline semi-transparent PV rated at 50 W. The electrical and optical properties were evaluated for the performance of the window glazing system. The experimental I-V and P-V curves were measured at different irradiances. Throughout the experiment, the observed module temperature was between 20 °C - 51 °C and air temperature 17 °C - 33 °C while humidity was recorded at a range 23% - 63%. Module electrical efficiency was observed to vary from 4% to 9% while the visible light transmission from 11% to 19%. It was concluded that at high temperature regardless of irradiance increase, there were observed output power and efficiency drops caused by high heat losses. Keywords: Solar energy, BIPV, semitransparent PV, energy efficiency, daylight harvesting