Performance improvement of PV panel using water cooling technology under Egyptian conditions

Abstract

This paper presented the effect of water cooling technique on the performance of PV panels under Egyptian condition. In this study three different positions of the cooling technique was studied (front side, backside and both sides simultaneously). The results of this study was compared to the conventional PV model without cooling to obtain the optimal technology of cooling system. The performance of the system was studied experimentally during the period 10.00AM: 2.00PM. The experimental results show that the effective power produced for the PV panel increased by 15.5% (effective 10.0%), 13.97% (effective 8.4%) and 17.4% (effective 11.9%) in case of front side, back side and both sides simultaneously cooling technique respectively in comparison with the noncooled panel. Furthermore, it was also possible to decrease panel temperature from an average 55 °C (non-cooled PV panel) to 27 °C, 32 °C and 24 °C in the case of front side, backside and simultaneous front and backside PV panel cooling respectively.