The performance of floating Photovoltaic system over a small pond in Jakarta.

Abstract

It is recognized that photovoltaic (PV) cells exhibit a drawback when subjected to significant temperature increases. This paper presents an initial study of the performance of Floating PV (FPV) over a pond, encompassing the effect of the PV panel’s surface temperature on the variation of the PV cell efficiency. To facilitate this study, an experimental study was conducted. The experiment deployed four monocrystalline PV panels with a maximum power output (Pmax) of 100 Watts for each panel. These four panels were divided into two sets that each set contain two PV panels. The first set was installed over a small pond with an area of 24 m2 and a depth of 1.2 m, while the other set was placed over a concrete surface with the same area size. The steps of the experiment study were as follows: (1) to measure the PV panel’s surface temperature of the two sets, and (2) to calculate the operating PV cell efficiency using an energy balance equation. The measurement of the PV panel’s temperature was taken hourly from 08.00 AM to 04.00 PM on clear and cloudy day. The data on rainy day was excluded. The study was conducted in an urban area of Jakarta, where the average ambient temperature ranges between 25°C and 30°C. The experimental site conditions are relatively clear, only several trees located on the south of the area. The results indicated that pond has a significant effect on the reduction of the PV panel’s surface temperature as compared to the PV set over the concrete surface. The average temperature reduction is around 3.5°C on a clear day, whereas the maximum reduction is 7.8°C, when the irradiance level rises to around 1000 W/m2. Indeed, the observed improvement of the PV cell efficiency was approximately 3.9% at the highest and in average was around 2%.