A new approach for photovoltaic module cooling technique evaluation and comparison using the temperature dependent photovoltaic power ratio

• Published in: Sustainable energy technologies and assessments 2020-06, Vol.39, p.100705, Article 100705
• Main Authors: Sultan, Sakhr M., Tso, C.P., Efzan, M.N. Ervina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Comparison; Cooling techniques; Evaluation; Photovoltaic efficiency; Photovoltaic module; Photovoltaic power ratio
• ISSN: 2213-1388
• DOI: 10.1016/j.seta.2020.100705

•The calculation of unknown PV performance for any PV reference power becomes easier.•The comparison among different PV cooling techniques becomes simple.•The new term can reduce the calculation time as compared with the existing method.•This parameter can be used as a PV cooler performance measure. Many photovoltaic module cooling techniques are available to reduce the solar cell temperature, resulting in enhanced efficiency. Although the power of the photovoltaic module is usually reported as a measure for the performance of the cooling technique, the performance assessment and comparison among different coolers become difficult if different photovoltaic module’s reference power is being utilized. The existing method requires calculations to be done repeatedly to obtain the photovoltaic module’s power, for any given value of the reference power. In order to compare the performance of the coolers, the use of the same reference power is needed, resulting in a lengthy process. Hence, a new assessment method is proposed, based on the temperature dependent photovoltaic module’s power ratio that is defined and derived. The new method identifies the relevant parameters that are essential for measuring the performance of the cooler such as the power of a photovoltaic module with a cooler and the reference power at photovoltaic module’s standard test conditions. The outcome is that the calculation of the unknown power for different reference power can be instantly obtained and the performance comparison among different coolers become simple without going through the lengthy process as it is in the case of the existing method. It is shown that the proposed method has the same results as the existing method which is experimentally validated. This is evidence to support the new method which may have potential to be applied by photovoltaic module cooling techniques designers.