Study the temperature feedback-based flow control valve on cooling a photovoltaic solar panel

• Main Author: Tan, Wei Ming
• Other Authors: Ng Yin Kwee, Eddie
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77875
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The Photovoltaic (PV) panel operating temperature affects the efficiency of the panel. The average afternoon temperature in Singapore can rise above 25 °c, which is approximately the optimal testing temperature for most PV panels. Therefore, to be able to utilise the panel efficiently, it is important to constantly monitor the panel operating temperature. The water-cooling method is proposed by many researchers to maintain a uniform power output from the panel. In this report, an experimental setup is developed to observe how the ambient temperature, surface temperature, irradiance and flowrate of water would affect the power generation of the panel. A threshold temperature of 44 °c is used. For continuous cooling, the flow rate of 26.3 ml/s is used, and the total energy generated by the cooling panel is approximately 14.5% higher as compared to the non-cooling panel. For intermittent cooling, three different flowrates 26.3 ml/s, 21.6 ml/s and 16.6 ml/s were used. It is observed that the water flowrates do not make a big difference to the power generation efficiency %. Also, power generation efficiency of continuous water cooling that yields 14.5% which is higher as compared to intermittent water-cooling that yields 10.5-12.3%. From the experiments, it is observed that by using a water-cooling measure coupled with a flow control valve on the PV panel, its power generation efficiency improves. The panel efficiency refers to its power generation efficiency. It is define based on the comparison of power generation from the panel over a time period.