Effect of Control Temperature on The Performance of PV Modules Using Active Water-Spray Cooler

Abstract

As a result of the greenhouse effect and climate change, renewable energy is gradually replacing traditional electricity sources today. Photovoltaic (PV) technology, in particular, is gaining popularity worldwide, but low efficiency is a challenge that must be overcome. This paper describes an experimental method for determining the effect of control temperature on the performance of PV modules equipped with an active water-spray cooler. The study chose two polycrystalline silicon PV modules with identical specifications, and the experimental evaluation results show that the capacity difference is less than 1%. Through experimental results, this study has shown that on sunny days the daily energy output of PV modules using an active water-spray cooler improves over reference PV modules by 3% to 5%. With increasing temperature control, the performance improvement becomes less. When the control temperature is lower, the working time of the pump motor during the day increases, increasing its power consumption and affecting the proposed system’s performance improvement. In addition, with the control temperature at 45°C, the performance improvement was highest in the experimental results. The findings of the study can be used to build future experimental models.