Abstract
Photovoltaic solar cells convert light energy from the sun into electricity. Photovoltaic cells are produced by semi-conducting materials to convert the energy into electricity and during this process heat is absorbed by the solar radiation. This heat causes a loss of electricity generation efficiencies. In this study, an experimental setup was designed and established to test two separate photovoltaic panel systems with alone PV and with water cooling system PV/T to examine the heat effect on PV systems. The absorbed heat energy behind the photovoltaic cell's surface in insulated ambient was removed by means of a water cooling system and the tests for both systems were simultaneously performed along the July 2011. It is found that without active water cooling, the temperature of the PV module was higher during day time and solar cells could only achieve around 8% conversion efficiency. On the other hand, when the PV module was operated with active water cooling condition, the temperature dropped significantly, leading to an increase in the efficiency of solar cells as much as 13.6%. Gained from absorbed solar heat and maximum thermal conversion efficiencies of the system are determined as 49% and 51% for two different mass flow rates. It is observed that water flow rate is effective on the increasing the conversion efficiency as well as absorption and transition rates of cover glass in PV/T (PV-Thermal) collector, the insulation material and cell efficiency. As a conclusion, the conversion efficiency of the PV system with water cooling might be improved on average about 10%. Therefore, it is recommended that PV system should be designed with most efficient type cooling system to enhance the efficiency and to decrease the payback period.
Highlights
Maximum cell temperature of PV module happens as 65 0C while photovoltaic and thermal (PV/T) cell temperature is decreased to 32 0C at time 13:00 on
Cell temperature of the PV system increases with increasing solar radiation where variation of PV/T cell temperature is kept in the range of 20-30 °C
The results show that in the case of the PV module temperature is 65 °C, electrical efficiency of the PV module is 8%
Summary
EPJ Web of Conferences photovoltaic (PV) cells is not converted to electric energy, but either reflected or converted to thermal energy. This leads to an increase in the PV cell’s operating temperature and a drop of electricity conversion efficiency due to the significant reduction in the open circuit voltage of each PV cell [1]. For monocrystalline (c-Si) and polycrystalline (pc-Si) silicon solar cells, the electrical efficiency decreases by about 0.45% for every degree rise in temperature. For amorphous silicon (a-Si) cells, the effect is less, with a decrease of about 0.25% per degree rise in temperature depending on the module design [2]. In order to obtain variable level conversion efficiency, module temperature should be kept as low as possible [1]
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