A Novel Active Cooling Technique for Photovoltaic in Harsh Area

Abstract

The performance of photovoltaic panels decreases significantly when the temperature of photovoltaic panels is raised. In harsh environments such as Iraq, which has a scorching climate in the summer, the photovoltaic systems are suffering from high mitigation in power production despite the high sunlight intensity. A cooling system was designed, implemented, and tested on a photovoltaic panel in this experimental study. A closed-loop water stream cooling system was proposed to collect heat from the back of the photovoltaic panel, then dissipate it via a heat radiator. An Arduino-based device was designed especially for this experiment for collecting the panel data, including panel temperature in different spots, water temperature, ambient temperature, and panels' voltage & current. The results were compared with a panel twin that was not cooled under the same circumstances. Results showed that the proposed cooling system increases the productivity of the photovoltaic panel by 72%. In addition, results show that the even distribution of the heat for the photovoltaic panel due to using the proposed cooling system contributes to reducing the effect of the hot spot.