Enhancement of wind speed using converging duct for cooling off-grid mast-mounted flat solar PV panels to improve its power generation

Abstract

The potential of wind speed for cooling a mast-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) panel is tapped by placing a converging duct in the windward direction of the PV panel mounting. Owing to this arrangement, the wind speed beneath the PV panel is increased, which resulted in decrease of the operating temperature of PV panel and increase in PV electrical power generation. The wind speed is increased by a factor of 1.5, which reduced the temperature of PV panel by 2-3°C and increased the electrical output power by 0.7 W. Correlations in terms of ambient temperature, solar irradiation and wind velocity were developed for predicting the PV panel temperature and were validated with the experimental values.