Tesla Solar Roof Tile

[damonl]

Good Day,

Is there anyway one can model the Tesla Solar Roof tile in PVsol?

I don't see the option for it under PV modules unless one can manually add it but details on the Tesla Solar Roof tile are limited.

Thanks

Regards

Damon

 

[developer_mh]

Hi Damon,

yes, the details on the solar roof of Tesla are very limited, in contrast to their marketing. On their website you can even order them already, without having seen any details/datasheets or whatever. I wonder who does this... but if you find out something, I think everyone here would be happy if you could share it.

Thanks and kind regards,

Martin

[damonl]

Trying to figure out if there is a hack for this in PVsol, anyone have any ideas?

Also I can't imagine the efficiency being that great either.

Will obviously have to be based on assumptions but I managed to find out the watts per a square meter on another forum.

Thanks

Damon

[damonl]

Is it not possible to create the Tesla Solar Roof tile in PVsol.

At the minimum we have the watts per a square meter from researching but the challenge is not much has been published on the solar roof tile.

Trying to figure out how once can model it on PVsol.

Thanks

Regards

Damon

 

 

[developer_mh]

Hi Damon,

you could try to create a new module in the database and enter all the details that you know of so far. The dimensions were published, and if you found out the specific power in W/m² you can calculate the nominal power of a tile by multiplying it by the area.

So, one tile is 184 mm wide and 365 mm long, which gives 0.067 m². I don't know the specific power you have found out, but if I should estimate the efficiency of the tiles, I'd say they have around 10 %.

This would give a nominal power of 1000 W/m² * 0.067 m² * 0.1 = 6.7 W.

Then, when you enter the voltage and current details on the next page, I would recommend to set the number of cells to 2, and adjust the voltage values accordingly. After that,  adjust the currents:

• In the section electrical data set the number of cells to 2.
• In the STC section, enter the nominal power of 6.7 W in the field top right
• Change the voltage values to a 2/60th of their original values:
  • MPP: 28.3 V / 60 * 2 = 0.943 V
  • open circuit: 36.1 V / 60 * 2 = 1.203 V
• The nominal power of 6.7 W is the product of MPP voltage and current, so you have to adjust the MPP current to 6.7 W / 0.943 V = 7.12 A.
• Since the ratio of MPP current to short circuit current should be left as is, you also have to change the shor circuit current to 7.12 A * ratio_I = 7.12 A * 7.7 A / 7.07 A = 7.75 A
• The thermal voltage coefficient should be adjusted as well, set it to -0.35 %/K.

With those values you should be good to go. Of course that is mere guessing, but if you really want to simulate these systems already, this is what you could do.

Kind regards,

Martin

[damonl]

Hi Martin,

Great, thanks I will give that a try.

So little has been published to date but it's worth a try, other forums are saying the output is roughly 100W per a square meter.

Regards

Damon

 

[developer_mh]

Hi Damon,

yes, these 100 W/m² would be equal to a efficiency of 10%. Let me know if you succeeded!

Regards, Martin

[damonl]

Sure, will give it a try and let you know the results.

[damonl]

I managed to add a new entry in for the Tesla Solar Roof tile, when modelling the system I just had to divide the total surface area by the number of tiles to get the quantity of tiles required. As was expected though the numbers don't look that great considering the low efficiency and the cost but appears to look accurate.