Improving Conversion Efficiency of Solar Panel by Cooling System

Conversion of solar energy into electricity through PV cells is varying between 7 and 20% and determined primarily by the type of semiconductor material from which the cells are manufactured. The increase in cell operating temperature has a negative impact on the electrical efficiency of PV cells. The efficiency of photovoltaic modules decreases with heating and also the photovoltaic cells will exhibit long-term degradation if the temperature exceeds a certain limit. In this work, active water cooling is utilized to reduce the operating temperature of the PV module. Without active water cooling, it was observed that the PV module's temperature was high and solar cells could only convert energy upto 8–9%. However, the temperature reduced dramatically when the PV module was used with active water cooling, increasing the efficiency of the solar cells to between 12 and 14%.