Experimental Investigation to Improve the Energy Efficiency of Solar PV Panels Using Hydrophobic SiO2 Nanomaterial

Abstract

This research aims to experimentally improve the overall efficiency of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels by coating them with hydrophobic SiO2 nanomaterial. Also, an accurate mathematical model was used to estimate the parameters of the PV panel, which is a non-linear optimization problem. Based on the experimental data and using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, the optimal five parameters of a single diode model of a PV panel were determined in this study. This experimental work was conducted and carried out in the Renewable Energy Laboratory of Assiut University, Egypt. A comparative analysis was completed for three identical solar PV panels; the first panel was coated with hydrophobic SiO2 nanomaterial, so it was considered to be a self-cleaning panel; the second panel was uncoated and cleaned manually on a daily basis; and the third panel was kept dusty all the time through the experimental investigation, and was used as a reference. Experimentally, the output power of the PV panels was monitored for each panel in this study. Also, the anti-static and anti-reflection effects of coating solar PV panels with hydrophobic SiO2 nanomaterial were investigated experimentally. According to the obtained experimental results, it was found that the use of SiO2 coating for PV panels results in the better performance of the PV panels. The overall efficiency of the coated panel increased by 15% and 5%, compared to the dusty panel and the uncoated panel which was manually cleaned daily, respectively.

Multicriteria Decision-Making to Determine the Optimal Energy Management Strategy of Hybrid PV–Diesel Battery-Based Desalination System

“…The proposed hybrid system's techno-economic parameters are listed in Table 2 [66,67]. These parameters are employed to determine the proposed system's optimal sizes using HOMER Pro ® software [68,69].…”

“…These parameters are employed to determine the proposed system's optimal sizes using HOMER Pro ® software [68,69]. The proposed hybrid system's techno-economic parameters are listed in Table 2 [66,67]. These parameters are employed to determine the proposed system's optimal sizes using HOMER Pro ® software [68,69].…”

Recent Improvements of the PV Solar Energy Generation Performance

“…The PV solar energy generation systems are affected by environmental and weather conditions. The environmental factors like shading, dust, humidity, and so on tend to block sunlight from reaching the PV arrays then they limited the capacity of the generating power of solar module, and they reduce the overall efficiency by 30% to 40%, especially in desert areas [35,36]. Therefore, the PV solar modules performance is hurted by environmental factors, and such factors are described in the Fig.…”

“…The Manual cleaning techniques have some disadvantages, such as cracking the PV solar panels during brushing, need a lot of labor and time, and cannot clean perfectly especially small particles that might be left on the surface of the panels [35].…”

“…In the article [35], the experimental study is carried on three similar PV solar modules; the first module is coated with hydrophobic SiO2 nanomaterials, the second module is uncoated but cleaned manually. And the third module is dusty and uncleaned during an experimental time and used as a reference.…”