Efficiency improvement of photovoltaic thermal system using water surface cooling

Abstract

Solar energy is an important part of the renewable energy. Photovoltaic (PV) cell newlineconverts a part of solar energy into electrical energy, only 15% to 21% solar energy is newlineconverted into electrical and rest of the energy is converted into heat. This heat newlineinversely affects the efficiency of the solar cell. The efficiency of solar panel mainly newlinedepends upon three factors: the intensity of the solar radiation flux, the quality of the newlinesemiconductor used and the operating temperature of the semiconductor cell. It is newlineknown that efficiency of the photovoltaic cell decreases on increasing the cell newlinetemperature. To maintain the temperature of the PV cell, incorporation of a cooling newlinesystem is required. Water cooling technique is the best method to reduce the cell newlinetemperature and reflection losses. The main aim of this work is to reduce the cell newlinetemperature and increases the performance of the photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system. newlineFollowing three different cooling techniques have been used in this thesis to lower the newlinecell temperature. newlinei. Frontisurfaceicooling. newlineii. Backisurfaceicooling. newlineiii. Combinedi (front and back)isurfaceicooling. newlineAbove mentioned water cooling techniques are applying in both (winter and newlinesummer) conditions with different water flow rates (1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 LPM) at MNIT, newlineJaipur, (Rajasthan) in the clear day. This works shows the effects of electrical and newlinethermal analysis of all three surface water cooling techniques and its performance newlineparameters like as temperatures (solar cell, back surface, inlet water, outlet water), newlineoutput power, and efficiencies (electrical, thermal and overall) of PV/T modules in both newline(winter and summer) seasons. A mathematical model has been designed and calculates newlinethe energy balance equations for every section of the photovoltaic/thermal system for all newlinethe three surface cooling techniques. We also derived the equation for module (cell) newlinetemperature (Tc) and back surface temperature (Tbs) by the using of energy balance newlineequations for all techniques. The performance parameters were calculat