The Development of Hybrid Cooling Photovoltaic Panel by using Active and Passive Cooling System

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) panel are crucial in the conversion of solar irradiance into electrical energy. However, the efficiency of PV panel is indirectly influenced by the surface temperature of the panels. According to typical PV module standards, the effect of panel temperature on efficiency is -0.47 %/°C, which indicates that a rise of 1°C reduces the PV panel's efficiency by 0.47 %. The efficiency of the PV panel achieves its maximum value when the panel temperature reaches 25 ℃, which is the standard test condition (STC). Moreover, a high working temperature can also reduce the lifetime of the PV panel. Based on the limitations that have been highlighted above, this project aims to design and develop a hybrid cooling PV panel by using active and passive cooling system with Arduino UNO R3. In this project, 100 W monocrystalline photovoltaic panel has been selected to analyze the result before and after installation of hybrid cooling system. Active cooling system is a water sprinkler system which is applied in front of the PV panel. Meanwhile, the passive cooling system is a combination of hydrogel beads and the heat-sink cooling system which will be installed behind the PV panel. In result, the average power output of PV panel without cooling was 30.59 W while the average power output of PV panel with hybrid cooling was 34.66 W. Moreover, the average power increased due to cooling was 13.31 %. In a nutshell, the proposed project has the ability to develop a hybrid cooling system to improve the performance and efficiency of the PV panel in order to increase the power output of the panel.