Studies on performance enhancement Of standalone rooftop solar Photovoltaic module using effective Cooling methods

Abstract

Nowadays, almost all governments are encouraging the use of Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) panels to meet their energy requirements, especially in residential and office buildings. The operating temperature of the SPV module is influenced by the ambient temperature and the intensity of solar irradiance falling on the PV module. The increase in operating temperature of the SPV cells results in a reduction in open-circuit voltage and power output of the SPV modules. The net results lead to the loss of electrical conversion efficiency and irreversible damage due to the thermal degradation of SPV cell materials. Due to the large gap between the refractive index of the air and glass, about more than 4% of the light falling on the glass surface is lost due to reflection from the airglass interface. This reflection loss is greatly minimized by the anti-reflection coating (ARC) on the glass surface exposed to the sunlight newlineThe objective of this study is to experimentally investigate the possibility of improving the performance of the standalone rooftop SPV module used in the residential and office buildings during peak solar irradiance and ambient temperature conditions by adapting the least expensive cooling methods. The performance of the modules was studied with five different cooling, to identify the least expensive and most suitable method of cooling of the standalone rooftop SPV module with and without the aid of external power. The performance of the module without cooling is compared with the cooling of the module at five different cooling conditions such as Underneath tray water cooling of the SPV module rear surface, Underneath tray water cooling of the SPV module rear surface with coating on the front surface of the SPV module, Cooling of the front surface by water overflowing over the front surface of the SPV module, Cooling of the rear surface by spraying the water over the rear surface of the SPV module and simultaneous cooling of both the front and rear surfaces by overflowing and spray water. newline newline