Improving the Efficiency of Photovoltaic Cells by Using the Distilled Water Immersion Method

Abstract

Photovoltaic panels can convert solar irradiance into (electrical and thermal) energy. The (PV / T) system was developed, created, and its performance tested in this experimental analysis. The main objective of this study was to design, manufacture and evaluate the work of the PV/T system as a thermal collector to enhance heat transfer, by using distilled water as a working fluid used to cool (PV/T) system. The experiment was performed with flow rate of water from (1 L / min to 5 L / min) on the PV / T collector channel. A theoretical and practical study was conducted on the effect of cooling the panels by immersing (PV) from (upper and lower) in a distilled water parallel flow forced circulation. Numerical result obtained by using Comsol Multiphysics program have been used as a computational fluid dynamic (CFD). The numerical study was conducted to determine the optimal depth of immersion of the panel to experiment with it, simulation results showed that the optimum depth of immersion is (5mm). The experimental results were conducted at the Technical Engineering College of Najaf with indoor test conditions that were controlled, Tin=20 C, h=5mm. The results have been shown that the electrical efficiency of traditional photovolatic panel without cooling varied between (10.5-11.6) %, while the electrical efficiency of PV/T system varied between (14.6-14.7) %.