Improving the performance of photovoltaic panels using a direct water cooling system

Abstract

In the paper, a direct water cooling system dedicated to photovoltaic panels has been developed and tested. In the beginning, the effect of temperature on power generation in the tested photovoltaic panels was determined. Furthermore, different configurations of the developed water cooling system were considered. Under laboratory conditions, an increase in the efficiency of a PV panel with a direct water cooling system was achieved at a level of 12% compared to an uncooled panel. The use of the direct water-cooling system under real conditions resulted in an increase in photovoltaic panel efficiency of 1.2 - 13.0%, while the average increase in energy production was 10.3%. Finally, the Simply Payback Time for installing the cooling system in typical domestic photovoltaic systems is less than ten years, while the Net Present Value ranges from -60.7 EUR to 178.6 EUR for a ten years period.

Keywords

• photovoltaics
• solar energy
• cooling
• overheating
• pv panels