Passive cooling of standalone photovoltaic panel

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the major renewable energy which is plentiful in newlineIndia. Flat solar photovoltaic (PV) modules are widely being used in domestic newlineand industrial buildings for meeting electric power demands. Higher newlineoperating temperatures of these PV modules result in lower electrical power newlineyield and conversion efficiency. Hence, to work against the drawback of newlinereduced power output, cooling of the PV panel is often required for newlinecontrolling the temperature of the PV module during its operation. Passive newlinecooling of the standalone PV panel plays a vital role in enhancing the newlineelectrical yield and efficiency without requiring additional electric power. newlineHence, the objective of this research work is to investigate two newlinedifferent passive thermal regulation techniques. The first method is a novel newlineand simple passive cooling system having a converging duct in the windward newlinedirection of the PV panel mounting. Due to this arrangement, the wind speed newlinebeneath the PV panel is increased by the factor of 1.5, which resulted in a newlinedecrease of the operating temperature of the PV panel by 3oC, and the newlinemaximum increase in PV electrical power generation by 7% was observed newlineagainst the reference panel. Correlations in terms of ambient temperature, newlinesolar irradiation, and wind velocity were developed for predicting the PV newlinepanel temperature and were validated with the experimental values. newlineThe second method used a Capillary pumped loop (CPL) passive newlinecooling system attached on the rear side of the standalone solar photovoltaic newlinepanel. The thermal and electrical performance was analyzed using two newlinedifferent refrigerants namely R134a (Tetrafluroethane) and R22 newline(Chlorodifluoromethane) in the CPL arrangement by absorbing the heat from newlinethe rear side of the PV panel newline