Development of a temperature-regulating photovoltaic facade panel with phase change material - a contribution to building-integrated PV in mullion and transom facades

摘要

Opaque facade areas show great potential for generating energy by using photovoltaic (PV) modules. Their use in the facade sector has so far been limited mainly to cold fronts because the performance of these modules drops with increasing temperature of the PV cells. In contrast to cold fronts, rear ventilation in order to cool the modules is not possible in standard mullion and transom facades. To ensure low module temperatures and thus a high performance, the PV modules are combined with rear-mounted phase change materials (PCM). When the temperature in the facade reaches the defined melting point of the selected PCM, it results in a phase transition from solid to liquid. The material absorbs thermal energy from the PV module and the temperature increase of the module can be buffered. At night, the thermal energy which is latently stored in the PCM is released back into the ambient air.