Study of the Cooling System of a Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic-Hydroelectric Energy Source by Numerical Simulation Method
摘要
Currently, new generations of photoelectric converters with multi-directional illumination are gaining more attention among researchers. This photoelectric converter has higher efficiency in converting solar energy into electricity and saves silicon materials by 2–3 times. However, the photoelectric converter overheats due to high radiation falling on a small surface. This situation is also observed in simple, one-sided illuminated photoelectric converters operating in hot climates. It reduces the efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) devices. To solve this problem, we proposed a hybrid power plant system consisting of counter-rotor reactive turbines and solar power plants. The cooling unit in the hybrid system is made of aluminum and polycarbonate materials with water or airflow channels and is placed behind the photoelectric converter. The temperature changes on the PV surface and in the coolant have been studied by modeling with the “Comsol Multiphysics 6.1” software package. Calculations were made for the case where the water flow speed in the cooling system channels is 1–4 mm/s, and the airflow speed is 2–5 m/s. It is obtained that the surface temperature of the solar panel without forced convection rises to 92 °C when the outside air temperature is 40–45 °C. When using water in the aluminum material cooling system, the solar panel temperature was 49.2 °C, and the water temperature was 48.2 °C. The temperature of the solar panel decreased up to 67.7°С using air cooling. The overall efficiency of the proposed hybrid power system reached 74%.