Preliminary study of a water cooled PV system

This work deals to improve the efficiency of the photovoltaic panel efficiency by water cooling. This cooling system uses 50 g/s of water flow rate which circulates in a closed circuit between an insulated tank and the back side of the photovoltaic panel. Considering the climatic parameters of a typical summer day in Ghardaia (south of Algeria), this system ensures a maximum PV panel temperature of $34. 9^{o}C$ at 1.30 pm. Furthermore, the electrical efficiency of the cooled PV panel increases from 13.22 to 14.51%, from 11.47 to 14.31% and from 13.11 to 14.56%, respectively, at 8 am, 1 pm and 6 pm, compared to the situation of uncooled PV panel, exposed at the same climatic conditions. Moreover, this cooling system offers a maximum improvement of 25% at midday. In addition, the temperature field on the PV panel is almost homogeneous except at the junction box of electrical wires, where the PV panel heats locally.