Prof. Said Ahzi
Principal Investigator, Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute & Professor, College of Science & Engineering;
HBKU, Doha, Qatar
By Saïd Ahzi(*) and Nicolas Barth.
The thermal behavior and performance of photovoltaic panels are studied under operation in harsh desert conditions using thermal finite element simulation. We apply such approach to compute the through-thickness temperature distribution of a standard solar panel under different configurations of hot temperature service conditions such as in the Gulf region. Such conditions usually impact the electrical efficiency through the well-known thermal effect, among other particular degradation and performance-related mechanisms. The principles for the thermal modeling and electrical performance estimation of the investigated PV panel are illustrated in Fig. 1. The thermal effects induce varying efficiency (η) during the simulation of relevant service periods. Note that within this energy balance, this approach allows us to simulate the performance of PV panels assuming they are at their maximum electrical efficiency, and thus we can quantify the electrical power produced during the simulated service conditions. For these simulations, we use meteorological data from the Gulf region’s desert climate. The results will be presented in terms of temperature evolution of the panel as function of solar irradiance measured over a large period of time. The predicted efficiency results will also be presented as function of the atmospheric conditions. In addition, we will address the effects of degradation mechanisms such as dust-related effects, aging and thermal stresses.
Fig. 1: Schematic of the proposed modeling approach.
References
J.C. Sánchez Barroso, N. Barth, J.P.M. Correia, S. Ahzi, M.A. Khaleel. “A computational analysis of coupled thermal and electrical behavior of PV panels”. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells; in press 2015
Nicolas Barth, Raka Jovanovic, Said Ahzi, Mohammad A. Khaleel: “PV panel single and double diode models: optimization of the parameters and temperature dependence”. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells; in press 2015.
Biography
Dr. Said Ahzi joined QEERI at Qatar Foundation on August 2014. He holds a joint full professor position with college of science and engineering at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He was previously at the University of Strasbourg where he holds a position as a distinguished full Professor (Exceptional Class). Dr. Said Ahzi received his PhD (1987) and Habilitation (1995) degrees in Physics and Mechanics and of Materials, both from the University of Metz, France. In January 2000, he joined the University of Strasbourg – France, Faculty of Physics and Engineering. He holds an Adjunct Professor position with the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech.), Atlanta – USA. He also was an associate research member with TEMA laboratory at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. From 1995 to 2000, he held the position of Professor (Assistant Professor then Associate Professor) at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University, SC, USA. Prior to this, he spent four years as Research Scientists/Lecturer at the Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences at UCSD (University of California at San Diego, CA, USA) and four years as Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA).
Dr. Said Ahzi is a member of several professional societies including the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), the European Association for Dynamic Behavior of Materials and its Applications (DYMAT), Materials Research Society (MRS), the French Association for Mechanics (AFM). He is an associate editor for two international journals (Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, Int. J. of Theoretical and Applied Multiscale Mechanics).
The research interests are in the general area of materials science and processing with applications to energy, environment, nanotechnology, biomedical, and industrial applications such as aerospace and automotive. Specific areas include, but not limited to: Development of multiscale and multiphysics approaches; Integrated Computational Materials engineering and design; Microstructure sensitive design of materials; Bridging microstructure, properties and processing; Thermal analysis of materials and structures; Systems optimization and design. He published more than 250 publications and has an H-index=30.