IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Informatics, Electronics & Vision

Performance Parameter Analysis of Grid Connected

Building Integrated Photovoltaic Application in
Bangladesh
Suman Chowdhury, Muhammad Al-Amin, Samia Sanjari, Shamma Tasnim and Mohiuddin Ahmad
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Khulna University of Engineering & Technology,
Khulna-9203, Bangladesh
Email: suman.kuet@gmail.com, ahmad@eee.kuet.ac.bd

Abstract—This paper analyzes the performance characteristics of
the grid connected building integrated photovoltaic application in
Bangladesh. For this purpose the partial shading effect on the PV
cell is analyzed from the respect of Bangladesh atmospheric
condition. Again the important factors focused in this paper are
solar irradiance, cell temperature, ideality factor, clearness
index, tilt angle, azimuth angle and fill factor. These factors are
to be maintained properly to obtain optimum performance from
a grid connected BIPV system. For PV array simulation 5
modules are taken giving a maximum power output of 320W.
operation of the building. In BIPV system (Fig. 1) the PV
modules are typically mounted with building structure and the
electrical system installed within the building and integrated
with the building electrical system or supplied to grid. For PV
modules to be considered truly BIPV modules, however, they
must typically replace materials which would have been used
in the building. The PV module then serves the dual functions
of an electrical device and a building coating.

Keywords-Shading effect; solar irradiance; cell temperature; PV Array

BIPV application; grid connected system;tilt angle; fill factor; AC load

I. INTRODUCTION Controller Inverter Distribution panel

The grid connected BIPV is a very important technology to
overcome the world energy crisis. In this system the building
owners can be highly benefited by supplying surplus energy
produced to the grid. Hence this BIPV system is getting highly
preferable to the building owners. According to the
International Energy Agency (IEA), PV-suitable surfaces can
be increased by about 35% incorporating BIPV on building
facades [1, 2, 3].
In order to increase performance of the grid connected
BIPV application, the study of the non linear I-V & P-V
characteristic curves of the PV module is to be completed first.
For this reason this paper considers various factors to analyze
the I-V & P-V characteristics of the PV module. The mostly
affecting factors are solar irradiance, temperature & ideality
factor that influences the PV module output significantly.
According to STC (standard test condition), the solar
irradiance is 1000W/m2 & the PV cell temperature is 25°C.
Further this paper highlights the partial shading effect on the
PV cell which affects the module output as well as the array
output. Since shading effect is a very important factor for
BIPV, this paper focuses how to minimize power losses due to
shading effect on PV module as well as on the PV array.
II. BIPV SYSTEM
Building Integrated Photovoltaic’s refers to the integration
of the PV system with the building structure and the electrical
Electrical Utility
Figure 1. Grid connected BIPV system.
The performance parameter of BIPV system includes solar
radiation, fill factor, orientation, tilt angle, shading effect. The
following sections discuss them briefly.
III. SOLAR RADIATION
The solar irradiation exposed to the PV array for fixed
position is calculated by (1) [4].
Gs = Gd + Gr (1)
Where Gs is total solar irradiation in kW/m2, Gd is direct
component of solar irradiation in kW/m2 and Gr is diffuse
component of solar irradiation in kW/m2.
G d = ( H cos θ − sin θ cos α sin δ cos ϕ n +
sin θ cos α sin ϕ n cos ω (2)
+ sin θ sin α cos δ sin ω ) × G od
Where H is sun elevation, θ is oblique angle of the sun in
radian, α is azimuth angle, δ is declination of the sun in

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 IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Informatics, Electronics & Vision

radian, φn is north latitude, ω is hour angle in degree, God is TABLE I. DAILY AVERAGE BRIGHT SUNSHINE HRS IN DHAKA CITY [5]
direct irradiation in radian. Month Daily mean Minimum Maximum
January 8.7 7.5 9.9
G (1 + cos θ ) 1 − cos θ (3)
February 9.1 7.7 10.7
G r = or + 0 .2 G o March 8.8 7.5 10.1
2 2 April 8.9 7.2 10.2
May 8.2 5.7 9.7
June 4.9 3.8 7.3
July 5.1 2.6 6.7
August 5.8 4.1 7.1
September 6.0 4.8 8.5
October 7.6 6.5 9.2
November 8.6 7.0 9.9
December 7.55 6.03 9.13

IV. TILT ANGLE AND AZIMUTH ANGLE

Figure 2. Plane maximum global irradiance at Dhaka. Declination at Dhaka
(Lat. 23.80N, long. 90.40E, alt. 8m).
Figure 3. Irradiance profile for one day [Khulna city, KUET Campus, 7th
March, 2011].
The grid connected BIPV system performance is mostly
affected by tilt and azimuth angles. The solar irradiance
exposed on the array is highly affected by the tilt and azimuth
angles. The optimum tilt angle depends on the local latitude.
According to Duffie and Beckman the optimum angle
is β opt = (φ + 15 deg) ± 15 deg (where Φ is local latitude)
[10]. In the winter and summer season the tilt angle is to be
increased and decreased respectively. The optimum tilt angle
is 10° for March to September and 40° for October to
February estimated for November 2007 to October 2008 at
Dhaka in Bangladesh [11]. Since it is not possible to move the
PV panel for BIPV system, it is needed to analyze the yearly
performance to obtain optimum average solar irradiation with
consideration of tilt and azimuth angles. For a fixed
orientation of PV panels the optimum tilt angle is calculated
mathematically given by (5) [6].
d n
( ∑ G tt ( i )) = 0 (5)
d β i =1
Where Gtt(i) is the total irradiance for i hours and n is the total
number of hours.

Where Gor is diffuse (horizontal) irradiation in radian, Go is

global horizontal irradiation in kW/m2. The sun elevation is
given by (4) [4].

H = sin − 1 (cos L cos D cos T + sin D sin L ) (4)

Where L is latitude in degree, D is declination of the sun in

degree; T is hour angle in degree [4]. Fig. 2 shows the clear
sky global irradiance at Dhaka city of Bangladesh where
maximum irradiance occurs at Feb. to Mar. and Sep. to Oct. of
the year. Again Fig. 3 shows the irradiance profile at KUET
campus of Khulna city at 7th March.
Figure 4. Monthly Horizontal global radiation for different latitudes in
From Table I, daily average sunshine hours are obtained Dhaka.
from which the idea of average amount of solar power
generation can be achieved. This type of statistics can help to At the tilt angle of 24° and azimuth of 145° monthly
determine the optimum tilt angle for grid connected BIPV horizontal global radiation which is peak at June and July
application. month is shown in Fig. 4. From Fig. 4, it is seen that the
horizontal global radiation is increased for decrement of
latitudes.

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 IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Informatics, Electronics & Vision

V. FILL FACTOR AND CLEARNESS INDEX

Fill factor is a very important factor to measure the degree
of performance. It can be defined as the closeness of the I-V
curve to a square wave. Again it can be defined as the ratio of
the maximum power that can be supplied to the load and
product of short circuit current and open circuit voltage. The
fill factor is given by (6) [12].

Pmax V mp I mp (6)
FF = =
V oc I sc V oc I sc

Where Vmp is maximum power point voltage, Imp is maximum

power point current.
Fig. 5 shows the fill factor against current at maximum
power point of a PV cell. From Fig. 5, it is clear that
maximum power point current is increased rapidly with fill
factor increment. Hence fill factor is a very important
influencing factor for obtaining better performance. We
obtained the practical value of fill factor for the Module MSX-
64 with the variation of irradiance and are shown in Table II.
Figure 6. Relation between temperature and clearness index.
Where Tc is PV cell temperature, Ta is the ambient
temperature (°C); NOCT is normal operating cell temperature
(°C). From Fig. 6, it is clear that the PV cell temperature is
increased linearly with clearness index increment. Hence
clearness index is another important influencing factor for
obtaining better performance from grid connected BIPV
system.

TABLE II. FILL FACTOR FOR DIFFERENT VALUS OF IRRADIANCE VI. MODELING OF THE PV CELL
Irradiance (W/m2) Fill Factor Fig.7 shows the equivalent circuit of the PV cell. The basic
200 0.832 equation that mathematically explains the I-V characteristics
400 0.817 of the PV cell is shown in (8) [7].
600 0.823
800 0.821
1000 0.822 q (V + IR S ) V + IR S
I = I ph − I S [exp( ) − 1] − (8)
kT C A R sh
Again the clearness index is another important factor which
is related to the global radiation. The clearness index may be Where Iph is a light generated current, IS is cell saturation of
defined as the ratio of the global radiation and extraterrestrial dark current saturation, q (1.6×10-19C) is electron charge, k is a
radiation. Boltzmann’s constant (1.38×10-23J/k), TC is the cell’s working
temperature, A is an ideality factor, Rsh is a shunt resistance
and RS is a series resistance. The light generated current
mainly depends on the solar irradiance and cell’s working
temperature which is described by mathematical expression
shown by (9) [7].

G (9)
I ph = [ I SC + K I (TC − Tref )]
Gn

Where ISC is the cell’s short circuit current at 25°C, KI is the

Figure 5. Fill factor effect on maximum power point current.
Again the PV cell temperature is related to the clearness
index which is given by (7) [9].
cell’s short circuit current temperature coefficient, Tref is the
cell’s reference temperature and G is the solar irradiation in
kW/m2 and Gn is nominal solar irradiation at STC in kW/m2.
Again the cell’s saturation current varies with cell temperature
which is expressed in (10) [7].

( NOCT − 20 ) ⎛ 1 1 ⎞
TC = Ta + ( 219 + 832 K t )( ) (7) ⎜ qE G ( − )⎟
T Tref TC (10)
I S = I RS ( C ) 3 exp ⎜⎜ ⎟
800
Tref kA ⎟
⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ ⎠

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Where IRS is the cell’s reverse saturation current at the

reference temperature EG is the band-gap energy of
semiconductor material utilized in the PV cell. The cell’s
reverse saturation current which is related to open circuit
voltage and short circuit current is given by (11) [8].
I SC + K I Δ T (11)
I RS =
VOC + K V Δ T
exp( ) −1
AV t
Where ΔT is the temperature difference between the actual and
nominal temperature (°C), VOC is the open circuit voltage of
the PV cell, KV is voltage coefficient and Vt is the thermal
voltage of PV cell. The thermal voltage is given by (12).
kT C (12)
Vt =
q
Figure 8. I-V characteristics of the module for variation of the cell
temperature.

Figure 7. Equivalent circuit of a PV cell [3].

VII. MODELING OF PV ARRAY

The PV array is the series or parallel combination of the Figure 9. P-V characteristics of the module for variation of the cell
modules. The PV module taken for simulation generates temperature.
maximum power output of 64W. To obtain power at desired
voltage and current, the series and parallel combination of the
PV modules should be analyzed properly. The current and
voltage relationship of the PV array having NS series and NP
parallel is given by (13) [7].

V IR NPV
q( + S ) + IRS
N NP N (13)
I = NP I ph − NP I S [exp( S ) −1] − S
kTC A Rsh

VIII. SIMULATION OF THE PV MODULE

To simulate the PV module a solar model is taken known as
BP MSX 64. The short circuit current and open circuit voltage
of the MSX 64 solar module is 4A and 21.3V respectively.
The simulated I-V curve of the PV module shown in Fig. 8
represents the I-V characteristics for variation of the module
temperature. From this curve it is clear that the module output
current is proportional with module temperature but module
output voltage is inversely proportional to the module
temperature.
Figure 10. I-V characteristics of the module for variation of the ideality
factor.
Fig. 9 shows that the PV module power output decreases
with increment of module temperature. Fig. 10 shows that the
maximum power point current is increased with ideality factor
decrement. Again Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 show that both
maximum power point current and power is increased
significantly for increment of the irradiance level. Again Fig.
13 explains that open circuit voltage (Voc) and maximum
power point voltage (Vmpp) are decreased at a same rate but the

873 ICIEV 2012

 IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Informatics, Electronics & Vision
maximum power output is decreased at a higher rate with
increment of the module temperature.
Figure 11. I -V characteristics of the module for variation of the solar
irradiance at 25°C.
Figure 12. P-V characteristics of the module for variation of the solar
irradiance at cell temperature of 25°C.
Figure 13. Characteristics of Voc, Vmpp and Pmpp against module
temperature variation.
Fig. 14 shows that maximum power efficiency level of the
module is increased due to decrement of the cell temperature
and highly increased with irradiance level increment for lower
temperature. The reference temperature taken for simulation is
25°C and the ambient temperature is 20°C.
874
Figure 14. Maximum power efficiency against incident irradiance variation
for different cell temperature.
IX. PARTIAL SHADING EFFECT ON PV MODULE AND
ARRAY
The partial shading effect analysis for BIPV application is a
very important factor. So from shading effect analysis it is
needed to find how to minimize the power losses due to
shading effect.
Figure 15. I-V characteristic of the PV module for no diode protection.
Figure 16. I-V characteristic of the PV module with single diode protection.
If 50% shading is occurred in a PV cell of a BIPV system,
Fig. 15 is obtained where no diode is used for protection
scheme. When a diode is used for protection purpose, Fig. 16
is obtained where reverse voltage of the module decreases to
almost zero.
ICIEV 2012
 IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Informatics, Electronics & Vision
Figure 17. I-V characteristic of the PV array for no diode protection.
Figure 18. I-V characteristic of the PV array for one diode protection in each
module.
Figure 19. I-V characteristic of the PV array for two diode protection in each
module.
Now if shading effect is to be observed in a PV array, Fig.
17, Fig. 18 and Fig. 19 are obtained. For this simulation 5
modules are taken which are connected in series. Fig. 17
represents that for 50% shading on a PV cell in each module
with no diode protection and the maximum power of the array
is 229W with 26.7% power loss. When one diode protection
875
scheme is used, the maximum power output of the PV array is
247W with 20.8% power loss as shown in Fig. 18. And when
two diode protection scheme is used, Fig. 19 shows that the
maximum power output is 279W with 10.9% power loss.
X. CONCLUSIONS
The performance parameters of grid connected building
integrated photovoltaic application were studied in the case of
Bangladesh climate condition. The most influencing factors
for developing the output power performance are tilt angle,
azimuth angle, clearness index, ideality factor and shading
effect. Since PV modules are to be oriented at a fixed tilt
angle, the determination of optimum tilt angle is to be done
very carefully. Again the shading effect on PV module and
array is needed to be analyzed significantly. The study of
shading effect in this paper shows that the power loss due to
shading effect can be minimized by 15.8% using two diode
protection scheme. The simulation software used for
performance parameter analysis is MATLAB and PVSYS-5.0.
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