Experimental investigation and validation of solar PV cooling for enhanced energy conversion efficiency for Indian climatic conditions

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) cells convert an average of 10 to 15% of the incident solar radiation into electricity and remaining energy is wasted as unused heat energy. The p erformance of solar PV is largely dependent on its operating temperature, which is again dependent on solar irradiation. The efficiency of solar PV reduces the higher PV temperature due to charge carrier recombination. The solar PV efficiency drops considerably wit h increasing temperature. Dust deposition on the surface of solar PV cells reduce incident energy and no technology is commercially available to mitigate the problem. The objective of the present work is to enhance the energy conversion efficiency of solar PV by adopting Front Water (FW) cooling technique. The FW cooling technique maintains the cell temperature at Standard Test Conditions (STC) irrespective of ambient air conditions and also washes away dust deposits, thereby providing maximum energy conversion efficiency specified by the cell manufacturer during the operation with increased lifecycle of solar cells. The experiment was carried out on a 100 W solar panel for a period of 2 weeks and data acquisition system with Arduino controller was used to analyze and maintain STC of the panel to obtain maximum power. The mathematical model of the system was analyzed and obtained results were in good agreement with the experimental measurements. The solar PV panel with FW cooling yielded an efficiency improvement of 9% with 17 W of increased power output at Maximum Power Point (MPP). MATLAB Simulink software is used to model t he FW cooling technique. The model is able to predict the power generated by the solar PV cells for the given irradiance with and without cooling. The developed model can now be utilized to design cooling systems for larger installation of solar PV systems.