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CFD News by Email
Flow Simulation Improves Photovoltaic Solar
Panel Performance
Posted Fri September 12, 2008 @11:24AM

Schueco, one of the leading
producers of photovoltaic panels,
used Flomerics Flovent
computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) software to redesign its
products to improve their thermal performance so that
15% to 20% more panels can be used in a given
space.
Todays photovoltaic panels present a major thermal
design challenge since every degree Centigrade of
temperature rise reduces the power produced by
0.5%.
The CFD results helped us understand exactly how
the panels were being heated and guided us as we
made major improvements to the design, said Hamid
Batoul, Technical Director of Solar Department,
Schueco International, Paris, France. As the first in
our industry to perform CFD simulation, we believe
that we are now able to provide our customers with
substantially higher power output than an equivalent
competitive design.
Schueco provides complete solar energy systems
including all components needed to produce energy
from the sun including panels, collectors, tanks,
mounting system, control units and monitoring
electronics. Sunlight hits the photovoltaic panels and
generates direct current. The UK government
sponsored Energy Saving Trust estimates that
microgeneration could reduce the UKs carbon
emissions by 15% compared with the present mix of
energy generation. The Rocky Mountain Institute in
Snowmass, Colorado recently released a study that
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Snowmass, Colorado recently released a study that
showed that output of small scale power sources will
soon outstrip the worlds nuclear power industry.
Schueco was the first company in the solar energy
business to recognize that substantial improvements
in photovoltaic panel performance could be achieved
by optimizing thermal design. I previously worked for
several companies making telecommunications
equipment and used thermal simulation to solve
thermal challenges, Batoul said. I found that
Flomerics Flotherm CFD software was the most
powerful tool available in that space. Performing
thermal simulation of solar energy systems requires
different software because of the need to model
building materials that play a role in thermal
performance. Flomerics offers Flovent CFD software
designing for addressing heating, ventilation and
cooling problems in buildings. We tried Flovent and
found it met all our requirements such as modeling
the thermal characteristics of glass and simulating the
effects of radiation on the panels.
Batoul uses Flovent to model complete solar
systems. Flovent simulates the absorption and
reflection of solar energy by the panels, the transfer of
heat to aluminum profiles and the surrounding air, etc.
The CFD results helped us understand exactly how
the panels were being heated and guided us as we
made major improvements to their design, Batoul
said. Examining the flow of air under the photovoltaic
panels showed that the size of the passageway was
constricting the flow of air. We increased the depth of
the profile that supports the photovoltaic panels to
increase the distance between the panels and the
roof. Re-running the simulation demonstrated that this
increased the airflow and reduced the temperature of
the photovoltaic panels. Through these studies, we
optimized the design of the solar energy systems and
also gained an understanding of how temperature is
affected by different arrangements of panels and
ambient conditions.

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Schueco Improves Photovoltaic Solar Panel Performance
Using FLOVENT Thermal/AirFlow Simulation Software from
Flomerics.
For further information, please contact:
Mike Reynell
Director of Marketing
Flomerics Group PLC
81 Bridge Road
Hampton Court
Surrey, KT8 9HH
UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 8487 3000
Fax: +44 (0)20 8487 3001
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