Abstract
This paper presents the development of a cooling apparatus using water in a commercial photovoltaic panel in order to analyze the increased efficiency through decreased operating temperature. The system enables the application of reuse water flow, at ambient temperature, on the front surface of PV panel and is composed of an inclined plane support, a perforated aluminum profile and a water gutter. A luminaire was specially developed to simulate the solar radiation over the module under test in a closed room, free from the influence of external climatic conditions, to carry out the repetition of the experiment in controlled situations. The panel was submitted to different rates of water flow. The best water flow rate was of 0.6 L/min and net energy of 77.41Wh. Gain of 22.69% compared to the panel without the cooling system.
Highlights
Abundant on Earth, solar energy for electricity production is still little used
This work shows that decreasing the panel operating temperature, when subjected to cooling apparatus, is the factor responsible for the increase of the voltage and the increase of the amount of energy produced
Without cooling apparatus, the photovoltaic panel produced 63.09 Wh, for 70oC on the panel, and after using a water flow rate of 0.6 L/min it produced around 78.74Wh, for about 50oC on the panel, a gain of 24.80%
Summary
Abundant on Earth, solar energy for electricity production is still little used. This problem stems from factors such as low efficiency in energy conversion, which can be influenced by external agents as solar radiation and temperature, and the high cost of PV panels [1]. Increasing the operating temperature of the PV panel leads, in particular, to the reduction in open circuit voltage ( ) and a slight increase in short circuit current ( ) which does not compensate for the loss caused by the reduction of voltage, there is a clear loss of power and loss of power conversion efficiency ( ) [3].
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