Experimental investigation on cooling the photovoltaic panel using hybrid nanofluids

Abstract

This work presents an experimental investigation on the use of CNT/Al $$_{2}$$ O $$_{3}$$ hybrid nanoparticles in a Photovoltaic/ Thermal (PV/T) system to enhance the photovoltaic electrical efficiency by reducing the temperature of PV cell. An experimental comparison on thermal and electrical efficiency of PV panel with and without cooling is experimentally analyzed. Furthermore, instead of using a serpentine tube collector, a spiral tube collector is used to enhance the rate of heat transfer from the photovoltaic panel. From the experimental results it is found that the enhancement is observed in the average electrical efficiency with water and nanofluid in the spiral tube collector and found as 7.15 and 8.2% respectively, whereas, the standalone photo voltaic panel it is found as 6.2%. The efficient removal of heat from the collector increased the power production by 11.7 and 21.4% using water and hybrid nanofluid in the PV/T system respectively, while compared to standalone PV system. Similarly, the overall PV/T efficiency using hybrid nanofluids in the spiral tube collector enhances by 27.3% than using water medium.