Exergy and economic analysis of a photovoltaic panel cooling with air bubble induced water jacket

Abstract

Solar photo voltaic (PV) panel performance is greatly affected by the rise in temperature of the PV panel. To increase the electrical conversion efficiency of the PV panel, assessments are made under various cooling circumstances. To assess the efficacy of the PV panel using a water-cooling system in the climate of Manipal, India, experimental studies were conducted in this research. The purpose of this research is to evaluate and compare various cooling strategies, such as Heat sink, water jacket, air bubble cooling and combination of these techniques. Air bubbles are introduced inside the cooling jacket, which generates turbulence motion and cools the PV panel. The cooling system is inspected while running at different panel temperatures. The percentage drop in maximum panel temperature is found to be highest at 15.36 % for the panel attached with water jacket and air bubble with heat sink combination. Also, the power output of the panel is found to be the highest for the above combination with the increase of 9.31%.