Case Studies in Thermal Engineering (Jan 2022)

Performance analysis of a solar photovoltaic power generation system with spray cooling

  • Yulong Zhao,
  • Siyuan Gong,
  • Caihong Zhang,
  • Minghui Ge,
  • Liyao Xie

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 29
p. 101723

Abstract

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An efficient cooling system can effectively reduce the temperature and improve the power generation performance of photovoltaic cells. In this study, spray cooling is applied to the cooling of photovoltaic cells, and the mathematical model of a solar photovoltaic power generation system is established by considering the power consumption of the cooling system. The net output power and electrical efficiency of the system are compared under different cooling modes. The results show that spray cooling has more obvious advantages than water cooling at large concentration ratios and there exists an optimal spray flow rate that can maximize the net electrical efficiency. The optimal flow rate increases as the concentration ratio increases. Furthermore, the temperature of the spray fluid significantly affects the system performance, and a 10 K reduction in spray fluid temperature can improve the net output power by 7.3%. Regarding the environmental factors, the influence of the ambient temperature is evident when the concentration ratio is small; however, the influence of wind speed is more evident when the concentration ratio is large. The results of this study provide new insights that may prove useful for optimizing the design of photovoltaic cooling systems.

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