Hybrid pv/t system performance based on the electrical and thermal efficiency in iraq

Abstract

Nowadays, solar energy is one of the important clean energies through converting the light sun into electricity by photovoltaic solar cells which is a semi-conducting material. Solar radiation is one of the most important factors in determining the amount of produced energy through absorbing it by the solar cells. On the other hand, heat is one of the sources of energy loss if it rises more than the prescribed limit, thus reducing the amount of electrical energy generated and reducing production efficiency. Therefore, this paper focuses on designing, testing and comparison the photovoltaic panel system (PVS) with and without Active cooling process via water in Baghdad environments. The active cooling system (ACS) was placed behind the solar cell in order to absorb the generated heat that is isolated from the environment. The testing of both models was conducted in April 2021 in Baghdad. As a result, PVS with cooling performed well compared with uncooled, where uncooled model at highest panel temperature produced about 8 % from operation efficiency. While, the ACS worked on increasing the system performance up to 16.5% by decreasing the panel temperature. The efficiency conversion has recorded to be 50% and 52% at two mass flow rates. Water flow rate increased the heat transfer through cover glass which led increasing the efficiency. Finally, ACS for PVS can improve the efficiency by about 12% as an average value. At high temperature environment, cooling system should be employed to get better PVS performance and reducing the payback period.