A Novel Forced Air/Water Injection System for Efficient Cooling of Solar Panels

Abstract

The move towards serious adoption of solar energy is now beginning to take shape. The use of solar energy is now being seen as part ofthe energy mix for the marine sector in the Nile river and solar power will most likely play an important role in helping to reduce fuel consumption and emissions from marine units, especially as further solar energy-related technologies are developed. In fact, the sea freight shipping industry has begun to practically look at ways to reduce fuel consumption and operate in a more environmentally friendly way. This paper reports on a project which is concerned with the utilization of solar power to run cruise ships (floating hotel) in the Nile river. The main concern is the performance of PV modules in the Aswan/Luxor area where the ambient temperature is elevated most ofthe year which reduces solar panel efficiency, and consequently, the rewarding returns on the investment and shortening the payback periods. In this paper, this concern is addressed and a new methodology to cooldown the PV modules and maintain the PV power output figures within an acceptable margin is presented. The proposed system is a mix of forced air draft and water injection at the backside of the P V module, in addition, a film of absorbent foam sheet is fitted to maintain the contact of water injected with the back sheet of the PV module and secure the continuous cooling of water injected with the forced air draft. A special experimental setup is designed, fabricated and arranged to carry on two different cooling techniques to cool down the solar panels one with airflow alone and the second with airflow and water injection at the backside ofthe panel. The proposed technology has resulted in a considerable decrease in PV module temperature and a 30 % increase in power output.