Enhancing Monocrystalline Solar Module Efficiency through Front-Surface Cooling with 96% Alcohol

Abstract

Electrical energy generation in solar modules is mainly limited by the increase in their temperature, and a heat removal process plays an important role. The main goal of the experiment was to keep the temperature of the cooled module below 47 °C through a series of the five short cooling and heating cycles and to determine the changes in the solar module output power during the cooling process with 96% ethyl alcohol. The optimal duration of the cooling cycles was determined to be between 3–6 min and for the heating process, it was 4–5 min. During the heating and cooling cycles the temperature of the cooled module did not exceed 42.1 °C. At the end of five active cooling cycles the temperature difference of 22.6 °C was achieved. The biggest difference in power between the cooled and uncooled module was 4.9%. The solar module efficiency was increased by 3.2%. It was concluded that alcohol, due to its evaporative losses, is not a viable cooling agent for solar modules. Nevertheless, it can serve as a potent additive in both active and passive cooling systems to augment the output power of solar modules.