Experimental evaluation of the solar radiation gains over photovoltaic cells due to the use of tio2 treated surfaces. Applications to photovoltaic systems with micro-inverters

Abstract

In building integrated photovoltaic (PV) systems, the reflection of the solar radiation by the walls of the buildings may cause a non-uniform distribution of the incident radiation on the different PV modules. However, by using micro-inverters at strings levels, electricity production may increase instead of provoking losses by mismatching. For this purpose, the maximum possible solar gain due to reflections is required. The annual profit of the solar radiation depends on factors such as climate, latitude and the relative position of the cell to the reflective surface. In the location of Seville (Spain), the gain on a PV cell generation due to radiation reflected by a TiO2 treated perpendicular surface reaches a 13% for an entire year. Therefore, it is well demonstrated that using micro-inverters not only involves a loss reduction of a solar installation but also to obtain a profit from the solar radiation that cannot be achieved with centralized inverters.