Experimental Assessment of PV Panels Front Water Cooling Strategy

Abstract

Abstract.The electrical performance and reliability of flattype photovoltaic (PV) modules can be severely affected by elevated cell operating temperature due to elevated ambient temperatures. In this work the free flow front water cooling solutions to enhance flat-type PV module electrical performance is experimentally explored on laboratory scale module operated outdoors under natural light luminance. Water-cooling is implemented using a perforated tube disposed on the top of the panel and a chilled water source, both attached to the module active surface. The cooling water directly wets the module active surface, thereby decreasing the light reflection loss and cleaning the panel surface in the same time. For given meteorological conditions, the efficiency of free water cooling was measured and the corresponding additionally electrical energy yield was determined. The equivalent electric circuit of the PV panel cooling system is developed and an appropriate algorithm for its parameters experimental determination is proposed.

Novel Design for Thermal Management of PV Cells in Harsh Environmental Conditions

“…However, in hot regions, PV efficiency drops considerably, for instance in Qatar, as the temperature reaches 40 • C-50 • C during summer [1]. Quantitatively, due to the heating effect, the efficiency drops by 0.1%-0.5% for each 1 • C gained by the cell surface, depending on the manufacturing technology [2,3]. In Qatar, during the summer season, the surface temperature of the PV panel reached around 80 • C, which could be the same case for the Arabian Gulf and other Middle East countries [4].…”

“…The increase in series resistance leads to higher voltage drops, which reduce the output voltage, and similarly, a drop in parallel resistance allows more current to flow through it. Consequently, the output power drops due to the high temperature [3,6,7]. High temperature does not affect the PV efficiency only, but also affects the lifetime of the panel [8].…”

“…Moreover, water flow on the active surface can reduce reflection losses of the light, because the refractive indexes of air and glass are 1.0 and 1.5, respectively, whereas the water refractive index is 1.3, which falls between air and glass [3]. Furthermore, cooling by water can increase the lifetime of cells and eliminate debris spots, which can destroy the cells due to the distribution of a non-uniform nature of temperature on the panel [3,5]. An experiment was conducted in University Politehnica of Bucharest to observe the cooling of the front surface of the PV.…”

Efficiency Improvement Based on Cooling Effect via Immersion Technique in a PV Solar Panel: Tropical and Cloudy Weather Setting

“…Many works have been performed and demonstrated cooling parts of the panel with water did succeed in bringing down the operating panel temperature and subsequently increase the panel (energy conversion) efficiency [2,5,[11][12][13][14][15][16]. Backside cooling of the panels were widely reported and studied so far via immersion technique [12,14,15].…”

“…As the temperature of solar panel is inversely proportion to efficiency of solar panel, various investigation have been carried out to decrease the working or operating panel temperature implementing different strategies towards achieving the higher energy conversion efficiency [11]. Many works have been performed and demonstrated cooling parts of the panel with water did succeed in bringing down the operating panel temperature and subsequently increase the panel (energy conversion) efficiency [2,5,[11][12][13][14][15][16].…”