Study on Preparation Method of Heat-Insulated Super-Hydrophobic Film and Improvement of Photovoltaic Modules Efficiency

Abstract

Dust accumulation effects for the solar panels are adverse factors, which affect the efficiency, output power and current. The humidity increased the dust particles adhesion force on a surface which increased the hardness of removing dust. In this research after coating the PV modules, it has the hydrophobicity on the surface to make self-cleaning and allow more visible light to be transmitted to improve the efficiency of solar panels, which made difference of transmittance for the experimental group and the uncoated module about 7% and archives significant increase for short-circuit current (Isc) about 6%. The maximum output power (Pmax) for experiment E3 is higher than the uncoated PV module by 46.5% and the efficiency also is higher than the uncoated PV module by 48% after self-cleaning of dust. Infrared light is the main effect on the operating temperature for solar panels. In our study the chemical structure of Nano antimony tin oxide (Nano ATO) heat-insulated super hydrophobic films has the characteristics of reflecting infrared light and transmitting visible light to decrease the temperature of PV modules. The gradual changing for mole ratio of Nano ATO in the three experimental group can show gradual difference of transmittance on the three PV modules such as E3, E2 and E1 have transmittance about 83%, 83.6% and 84.9%. And achieved difference temperature of E3 about 7.4 °C with enhancement about 17%, Isc about 6% and Pmax average without dust effects about 14.4% and compared with uncoated film.