Potential of Solar Cells Performance Enhancement Using Liquid Absorption Filters

Abstract

This work aims to assess the effect of using “Durathem G” as a liquid absorption fluid filter on the performance of PV cells since its spectral profile matches the spectral profile of silicon cells to a large extent. Also, it aims to evaluate the heat gained by the fluid and its potential to be employed in hybrid PV systems. The experiment was carried out by installing three identical 20 W PV modules. The first one was the standard panel without any modifications. The other two were modified using identical sheet-and-tube heat exchangers attached to the back surface of each panel as a cooling assembly and employing a thermal receiver above each panel with a 2-cm air gap in between. The effect of fluid layer thickness on the system performance was investigated by adopting two different thicknesses 5 and 8 mm. The main outcomes found that 5-mm filtered panel generates 87.3% of the electrical energy generated by the standard panel, while the 8-mm filtered panel generates only 71.8%. The 5-mm filtered panel was found to generate thermal energy gain of about 9.6 times its generated electrical energy, while the 8-mm filtered panel generates thermal energy gain of about 14.5 times its generated electrical energy.