Performance Analysis of PV Green Roof Systems
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: The common assumption is that plants underneath PV modules will cause a cooling effect resulting in a higher energy yield due to the negative temperature coefficient of PV power. The PV module temperature is measured to verify this thesis on a flat roof PV plant in Winterthur, Switzerland. Thirteen different mounting test field types with two different mechanical PV mounting systems are used, 20° or 15° tilted angles. Each type of mechanical mounting system is combined with planting beneath and with and without irrigation in the different test fields. The difference of the module temperatures, weighted according to the energy production, of all 13 analysed test fields is between ± 1.8 °C. This temperature difference results in a calculated energy yield difference of about ± 0.7 % for the used crystalline silicon modules. This value is in the range of the measurement uncertainty of the power measurement (± 1.2 %). Therefore the green roof has only negligible influence on the temperature reduction of the PV modules on the base of the used system components. However, a combination of PV and green roof is absolutely doable and recommendable provided that the mounting system is optimized for green roofs. Other more powerful benefits of such combination of green roofs and PV are the improvement of water retention in the city.
Authors: Baumann, T., Schär, D., Carigiet, F., Dreisiebner, A., Baumgartner, F.
Language: English
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3003812871