Abstract
The electrical performance of a photovoltaic (PV) module is hugely affected by its temperature. This study proposed a passive cooling mechanism for the cooling of a PV panel. The proposed cooling system is made up of a combination of aluminum fins and paraffin wax integrated at the PV panel’s rear side. The average temperature for the cooled panel for the entire period of the experiment is 36.62 °C against 48.75 °C for the referenced PV module. This represents an average reduction of 12.13 °C for the cooled panel. The average power for the cooled panel is 12.19 W against 10.95 W for the referenced module which is 11.33% improvement. The electrical efficiencies for the cooled panel and the referenced modules are 14.30% and 13.60%, respectively, representing an improvement of 5.15% in the electrical efficiency. The cooled solar PV module had an average exergy efficiency of 7.99% compared to 5.61% for the referenced module. In terms of the economics, the results from the computations show that LCOE of the cooled panel can range between 0.198 and 0.603 $/kWh, while that of the referenced module ranges from 0.221–0.671 $/kWh depending on the number of days it operates.
Highlights
The generation of electrical energy from coal dependent power plants is identified as the world’s principal source of power generation
The change is insignificant as the current for both panels remained almost same till after mid-day when the ambient temperature increased sharply which affected the temperature of the PV cell
The average power for the cooled panel is 12.19 W against 10.95 W for the referenced module. This is 1.24 W difference between both panels, which is 11.33% improvement in the power output due to the temperature reduction of the cooled panel occasioned by the proposed cooling mechanism
Summary
The generation of electrical energy from coal dependent power plants is identified as the world’s principal source of power generation. The coal dependent technologies have their demerits, i.e., they play a key role in global warming which comes with dire consequences on the environment [1,2,3,4] For this reason, a number of innovative technologies have been adopted in several countries to suppress pollutions from fossil power plants, some of these include integrated coal gasification, direct coal fuel cells, and carbon capture use and storage. The quantity of solar energy that strikes the earth’s surface is estimated to be about 173,000 TW which is 10,000 times more than the world’s primary energy requirement of 157,063.7 TW h [10] This suggests that the world has enormous RE resource which is not fully utilized
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