Development of a real‐scale cooling module for a PV power plant

Abstract

The goal of this study is to develop units of a photovoltaic (PV) cooling system and evaluate its performance, aiming at commercial electricity production, once the increase in electricity output is obtained by cooling down the temperature of the PV module. The methodology covers the description of production procedures, control and verification of three different models of the cooling system, of which two are sheet-and-tube types, with different diameters of coil curvature (85 and 140 mm), and one is a multi-channel type model. Results show that the production of the two sheet-and-tube models presented no issues during their construction and operating phases, while the multiple-channel model presented some complications at the construction phase (e.g. the thickness of the sheets hampered the welding process, leading to leakages during the tightness tests). The empirical control tests showed that the temperature of the PV module with a cooling system applied remains lower than the nominal operating cell temperature, whereas the PV modules without a cooling system presented temperatures higher than 68.1°C. Thus, the authors conclude that the most appropriate model for large-scale production applied at PV systems is the coil one, with 85 mm of the diameter of coil curvature.

Development of Modular Cooling for Water-Cooled Photovoltaic Plant in Real Scale

“…Additionally, in order to maximize heat transfer, the mean distance between the heat generation and the collectors should be minimum. Another suggestion regarding the area in which the liquid flows on the PV cell, this shall be as large as possible in order to cover the whole surface [22]. For this application, van Helden et al [6] suggested a configuration with multiple channels that allow PV cells arranged in series to be cooled equally.…”

Effect of Increasing Solar Radiation Reflected with Mirrors Perpendicularly on the Power Output of Photovoltaic System with Cooling

“…Research in this area has focused on various aspects of solar panels, namely new shapes, orientation, cooling and ideal tilt angle of solar panels, with or without tracking [13][14][15][16][17]. The studies reviewed before indicated that most majority of the mirror panel configurations increased energy production.…”

Estimation of system efficiency and utilisation factor of a mirror integrated solar PV system

“…There are numerous researches in the field of enhanced extraction of solar power from an existing system and the same is visible from the literature which includes the development of new maximum power point tracking algorithms, solar tracking methods, array reconfigurations, cooling, orientation and optimal tilt angle of the solar panel, suitable selection of different inverter topologies and the use of non-tracked mirror augmented PV systems [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. All the above schemes will be feasible only if they are able to guarantee lower investment cost with high system efficiency.…”