A new approach to water cooling of photovoltaic panels with a tracking system

Abstract

The article presents a water-cooling system for photovoltaic (PV) modules using a two-axis tracking system that tracks the apparent position of the Sun on the celestial sphere. The cooling system consists of 150 adjustable spray nozzles that cool the bottom layer of PV modules. The refrigerant is water taken from a tank with a capacity of 7 m 3. A water recovery system reduces its consumption with efficiency of approximately 90%. The experimental setup consists of a full-size photovoltaic installation made of 10 modules with an output power of 3.5 kWp combined with a tracking system. The article presents an analysis of the cooling system efficiency in various meteorological conditions. Measurements of energy production were performed in the annual cycle using three different types of photovoltaic installations: stationary, two-axis tracking system and two-axis tracking system combined with the cooling system.