Analytical and experimental performance evaluation of direct flow cooling effect on PV panel

Due to the properties of the used crystalline silicone in solar panels, the electrical efficiency of the PV modules can be significantly impacting by the operating temperature of the solar cells. In high temperatures, the energy produced from these cells decreases. The aim of the current study is to decrease the solar cell temperature in order to enhance electrical conversion efficiency. To achieve this goal, the PV module was attached with a water-cooling system, which consists mainly of a shell installed on the backside of the PV panel to produce direct cooling effect on the rear side of the PV module. A thermal model has been developed to estimate the optimal thermal performance of the PV module with the proposed cooling method. MATLAB software have been used to develop the thermal model, where the best mass flow rate is 5 L/m for the cooling fluid that achieved optimal results. The experimental results show an increase in output power, because of heat dissipation caused by convection exchange between the cooling fluid flow and the rear surface face of the PV plate. The gain in electrical power is about 44% while the temperature difference was about 5 oC for the selected mass flow rate of cooling fluid. Comparing the PV and PV/T state of solar panels, this led to be confident about the system ability to improve the output power of the solar panel. A good agreement between the experimental and the thermal model results achieved.