Improving the Electrical Efficiency of a Photovoltaic/Thermal Panel by Using SiC/Water Nanofluid as Coolant

Abstract

For photovoltaic panels, high temperature has a major effect, reducing electrical efficiency and decreasing the panel’s life span. In this work, an aluminum pocket collector was manufactured and fixed to the rear side of a photovoltaic panel to form a photovoltaic/thermal system (PV/T). A SiC/water nanofluid was used as coolant fluid with two volumetric concentrations (0.1 and 0.5%). The experiments were conducted outdoors at Babylon University (32.46 °N,44.42°E) in March. Different flow rates of SiC/Water nanofluid were tested (0.5,1,1.5 & 2 LPM). A comparison was made with another, identical, PV panel under the same conditions. SiC/water nanofluid had a noticeable effect on output power and results showed that the maximum enhancement in electrical efficiency was 33.27% with 0.5 % SiC/Water nanofluid and flow rate of 2 LPM,. and the maximum overall efficiency was 92.43 %.

A comprehensive study for Al2O3 nanofluid cooling effect on the electrical and thermal properties of polycrystalline solar panels in outdoor conditions

“…Cooling the photovoltaic cells with nanofluids with different concentrations and base fluid such as ethylene glycol has shown a better enhancement than water as a base fluid (Esfe et al 2014). An efficiency enhancement of 33.27% when using an aluminum box of 3-mm thickness and SiC nanoparticles with water-based fluid at a concentration of 0.5% and a flow rate of 2 l/min as reported by Abbood et al (2020). A comparative study is made between Al 2 O 3 , CuO, and Al 2 O 3 -CuO mixture nanofluids (Shankar Amalraj et al 2019).…”

MgO and ZnO Nanofluids Passive Cooling Effects on the Electricity Production of Photovoltaic Panels: A comparative Study

“…A hybrid nanofluid composed of alumina and carbon nanotubes (CNT) and water is utilized for active cooling using a spiral tube collector compared with non-cooling PV (Sathyamurthy et al, 2021), and they reported that the values of % was 17.2%, 16% and 14.8% for the three PV/T systems, correspondingly. Silicon carbide nanoparticles water-based nanofluid comparative study by (Abbood et al, 2020) used volume concentrations from 0.1% and 0.5% in contrast to water, which fill an aluminum rectangular of 3 mm height that circulated by a flow rate with different flow rates (0.5 -2) liter per minute. The electrical output of these two solar modules is compared with another one that was not cooled, and they found a maximum electrical improvement at a concentration of 0.5% and flow rate of 2 liter/minute.…”