Light Attenuation Model to Predict Nominal Power of Modules with Light-Scattering Ceramic Printed Front Glasses

One feasible design for Building-Integrated Photovoltaic modules applies ceramic printed glass covers. Power prediction of such modules is difficult as transmittance of printed glass panes in air was shown to be much lower than the relative power loss in the respective modules for the same print coverage ratio. Applying a matrix-based approach, we developed a light attenuation model, which can describe the relative transmittance decrease of glass panes in air and relative power decrease of modules for glass covers with arbitrary coverage ratios. The model shows good correlation with measured data. The modelled transmittance of glass panes deviate with a root mean square error of 0.55% from the measured transmittance values. The model can compute the module performance loss for investigated coverage ratios with a RMSE of 0.73%.