Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Water Cooling on the Temperature Distribution of Photovoltaic Modules Using Copper Pipes

Mohammad Hassan Shojaeefard (), Noor Barzan Sakran, Mohammad Mazidi Sharfabadi, Omar A. Hussein and Hussein A. Mohammed ()
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Mohammad Hassan Shojaeefard: School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran 13114-16846, Iran
Noor Barzan Sakran: School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran 13114-16846, Iran
Mohammad Mazidi Sharfabadi: Developments and Optimization of Energy Technologies Division, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), Tehran 14856-13111, Iran
Omar A. Hussein: Petroleum System Control Engineering Department, College of Petroleum Processes Engineering, Tikrit University, Tikrit 34001, Iraq
Hussein A. Mohammed: School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-21

Abstract: In hot climates, PV efficiency drops dramatically if the surface temperature of the panels rises over a specific limit. Consequently, a cooling system is required to preserve PV modules as close to their operating temperature as feasible. For this purpose, the influence of an increase in PV surface temperature on PV performance was studied experimentally and numerically at the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) in July. The current study uses a cooling system consisting of rows of copper pipes connected to the PV backside. The experiments are conducted for four distinct scenarios, each with a different input fluid temperature ranging from 19.5 to 61 °C. The parametric analysis focuses on three influential factors: ambient temperature, solar radiation, and fluid inlet temperatures. In addition, other inputs are configured in accordance with the experimental conditions. The results showed that installing a cooling water system decreased the PV surface temperature from 60.20 °C to 40.24 °C at 9:00 am and from 73.98 °C to 73.33 °C at 1:30 pm. Furthermore, the electrical, thermal, overall, and exergy efficiencies drop as radiation intensity and water inlet temperature increase. In addition, the numerical results are validated with the experimental ones, and it shows high degrees of concordance.

Keywords: solar thermal; thermal–photovoltaic hybrid collector; thermal modeling; electrical and thermal efficiency; solar thermoelectric cooler (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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