ENERGY & EXERGY ANALYSIS OF A PV PANEL WITH PASSIVE COOLING MECHANISM

A photovoltaic (PV) array is grately responsive to changes in temperature; contrarily, reduction in temperature is the major factor that subsidize to an raise in the electrical efficiency and output power of a PV system. To optimize the production of energy by PV panels and reduce their temperature, a photovoltaic (PV) cooling system is basically used. Nonetheless, more insolation is generally associated with higher temperatures, which is ambiguous for photovoltaic (PV) panels because they rely on that irradiance to create power. These extreme temperature rises have a devastating effect on how skillfully photovoltaic (PV) panels transforms energy. A solar photovoltaic (PV) system can opearte more accurately with an adequate cooling system on its surface. In this paper, a passive cooling model for the PV panel has been devloped which cools down the PV panel by employing dry grass and water at the back surface. A correlation has been made with a non-cooled panel. Two PV panels are simultaneously tested. Electrical output properties of both the PV panels have been recorded and energy and exergy analysis for the system has been presented to have a more detailed understanding of the cooling effect on PV panel performance. The cooled panel has an increase in efficiency by 47%. Along with the electrical efficiency, the thermal efficiency has also been presented in this paper for performance evaluation in the form of overall efficiency.