Experimental performance evaluation of tracking photovoltaic system based on variable water flow rate with surface temperature

Abstract

ABSTRACT A solar tracking system with an effective cooling technique is developed and implemented. Due to the solar radiation, high ambient temperature and dusty climate condition affected photovoltaic panel power production. A single east–west solar tracking system incorporating monocrystalline panel and a front surface spray water cooling system was conducted and compared to a fixed reference panel. The water flow rate is adjustable according to the set point temperature of the panel surface. The experiment was conducted during the summer season in north of Iraq (latitude 36.191° and longitude 44.009°). The study revealed that the implementation of the tracking system results in 4.19% increase in power production, while tracking with a cooling system has resulted in an improvement of up to 25.11% in Photovoltaic efficiency. The water consumption has been optimized, and the optimal cooling setting temperature was determined to be 40°C. Additionally, this model demonstrates that the performance of photovoltaic panel was decreased by only 0.2%–0.3%, when the surface temperature increased by 5°C within a range of 25–40°C.