Efficiency Improvement of a Photovoltaic Module Using Front Surface Cooling Method in Summer and Winter Conditions

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) cells exhibit long-term degradation, when its temperature exceeds a certain limit. On the other hand, decreasing the temperature results in lower PV cell efficiency. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the improvements in the output power and efficiency of PV modules using a cooling system based on flowing water on the front surface. Front surface cooling method with the help of a water pumping system is one of the most promising methods for cooling the PV cells. With poly-crystalline PV cells, different water flow rates are experimented, and the output power and the efficiency are computed for different weather conditions. These experiments yield that the cell efficiency is improved by approximately 27.3% in winter conditions and 27.6% in summer conditions.