Energy, Exergy and Sustainability Indicators of Photovoltaic Panel Cooling under Forced Convection

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) panels generate some of their energy as waste heat while converting solar radiation into electricity. This heat in photovoltaic panels adversely affects the output parameters of the panels. For this reason, there are many studies on cooling of PV panels in the literature. In this experimental study, waste heat was removed by placing DC fans with different numbers and different consumption power on 80 W monocrystalline panels. According to the results obtained from the experiments, while the net power of the reference panel was 62.42W, the net power of the E4 system (with 4 fans and the consumption power of the fans was 10W) was measured as 64.1W. The highest exergy efficiency and sustainability index values among all systems were also obtained from the E4 system.