Investigations on Photovoltaic Performance Enhancement Methods Based on PV Panel Cooling and MPPT

Abstract

Solar power is a significant contributor to the field of renewable energy. Photovoltaic cells (PV) newlineharness the solar energy by converting it into electricity. While only 15-21% of sunlight gets newlineconverted into electricity, the remaining is transformed into heat. The performance of solar cell newlinegets directly affected by this heat. The amount of solar radiation received by the solar cell, the newlinequality of semiconductor and the operating temperature of the PV cell are three major factors that newlineinfluence efficiency of a PV system. It is well proved that if the temperature of the PV cell goes newlineup, the efficiency of the PV cell goes down. The best way to maintain the temperature is to newlineimplement a cooling system for the PV panel. One front surface cooling system and three back newlinesurface cooling systems are experimented. This work also shows the effect of dust depositions and newlinecolor shades on the performance of the PV system. Another way to improve efficiency of the PV newlinesystem is incorporation of Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT). The aim of this work is to newlineenhance the efficiency of the PV system under the combined effect of PV Panel cooling system newlineand an MPPT. Combine effect of PV Panel cooling and MPPT are studied in MATLAB. The PV newlinepanel cooling alone increases the efficiency by 57%. The system s electrical efficiency increased newlineto 15.14% due to the novel integrated system. The thermal and electrical analysis for the cooling newlinetechniques is demonstrated in this work along with performance parameters like temperature newline(ambient, front surface, back surface, inlet water, outlet water), output power, efficiencies newline(electrical, thermal, overall) for the PVT system. newline