Abstract
Solar photovoltaic (PV) applications are gaining a great interest worldwide and dominating the renewable energy sector. However, the solar PV panels’ performance is reduced significantly with the increase in their operating temperature, resulting in a substantial loss of energy production and poor economic scenarios. This research contributes to overcoming the PV performance degradation due to the temperature rise. This work involves experimental and theoretical studies on cooling of PV panels using the evaporative cooling (EC) principle. A new EC design to cool the bottom surface of a PV panel was proposed, fabricated, tested, and modeled. A series of experimentation readings under real conditions showed the effectiveness of the method. A steady state heat and mass transfer model was implemented and compared with the experimental data. Fair agreement between the results of the modelling and experimental work was observed. It was found that the temperature of the PV panel can be decreased by 10 °C and the power improvement achieved was 5%. Moreover, the EC helps to stabilize the panels’ temperature fluctuation, which results in a better regulation of electrical power output and reduces the uncertainty associated with solar PV systems.
Highlights
Under the pressure of increasing electrical energy demand and depleting fuels, renewable energy, and especially solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, represent one of the solutions because of the attractive economic and environmental features of these resources.Installing PV panels is becoming essential for governmental, industrial, and domestic sectors for the present and future energy requirements
Comprehensive sensitivity analysis on the experiments were conducted for the main results of the effect Outdoor of the main influencing parameters such asseveral air anddays waterand flow rates was conducted open-circuit voltageheat and and temperature evolutions the panels with and without cooling using the developed mass transfer model.of
The outlet air temperature is lower than the inlet temperature. This implies that the cooling effect between the water and flowing air is larger than the heating effect due to solar energy
Summary
Under the pressure of increasing electrical energy demand and depleting fuels, renewable energy, and especially solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, represent one of the solutions because of the attractive economic and environmental features of these resources. The thermal and electrical efficiency of PV panels using water cooling and active clay pot evaporative cooling methods has been investigated by Rankumar et al [18]. Alami [11] studied the effect of evaporative cooling on the efficiency of the PV modules. His method incorporated a layer of synthetic clay to the back of the module and allowing a thin film of water to evaporate. A modified version of the evaporative PV chimney using water sliding was presented, showing an average cooling of the PV module of 15 ◦ C resulting in about. This work presents a comprehensive theoretical and experimental study along with a performance study on various parameters that affect the effectiveness of the proposed PV cooling method.
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