Experimental investigations of spray flow rate and angle in enhancing the performance of PV panels by steady and pulsating water spray system

• Published in: SN applied sciences 2021, Vol.3 (1), p.130, Article 130
• Main Authors: Nateqi, Mojtaba, Rajabi Zargarabadi, Mehran, Rafee, Roohollah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 3. Engineering (general); Air flow; Alternative energy sources; Applied and Technical Physics; Chemistry/Food Science; Cooling; Cooling systems; Earth Sciences; Efficiency; Electricity distribution; Engineering; Environment; Evaporation; Experiments; Flow rates; Flow velocity; Heat; Materials Science; Nozzles; Panels; Performance enhancement; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; Research Article; Solar energy; Spray cooling; Spraying; Water consumption; Water sprays
• ISSN: 2523-3963; 2523-3971
• DOI: 10.1007/s42452-021-04169-4

In this study, a spray cooling system is experimentally investigated to increase the photovoltaic panel efficiency. Cooling of photovoltaic panels is one of the important parameters that affects the PV panel performance. In this experiment the effects of spray angle, nozzles to PV panel distance, number of nozzles, and pulsating water spray on the PV panel performance are investigated. For this purpose, an experimental setup was made. The spray angles varied from 15° to 50°. The comparison between the spray angles shows that by decreasing the spray angle to 15° increases the electrical efficiency of PV panel to 19.78% and simultaneously the average PV panel temperature decreases from 64 (for non-cooled PV) to 24 °C. Also, nozzle to PV panel distance was changed from 10 to 50 cm. The best result was obtained for the lowest distance by 25.86% increase in power output. Study of various frequency also show that due to the surface evaporation and the intensity of the radiation, increasing the water spraying frequency can increase or decrease the electrical efficiency. The On–Off water spray system results show that the maximum increase in efficiency was obtained with frequency of 0.2 Hz which it was 16.84%. Water consumption also decreased to half.