engleski

Computational fluid dynamics analysis of water spray cooling for photovoltaic panels

This paper provides a brief overview of cooling strategies for decreasing the operating temperature of photovoltaic (PV) panels. Temperatures of PV panels during operation can reach up to 60 °C, thus decreasing the operating efficiency at rates up to 0.5 %/°C. The paper describes different cooling strategies with an emphasis on active cooling of PV panels via water spraying since this method is beneficial due to (i) cleaning effect of the surface of the PV panel, (ii) decreasing the operating temperature significantly and (iii) lowering the refraction index, thus minimizing the amount of infrared radiation absorbed by the PV cell. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to study the heat and mass transfer during regular operation of the PV cell without cooling and during operation with water spray cooling, and the results are compared with experimentally obtained data with good agreement. The guidelines for future studies are outlined.

Water spray cooling, Photovoltaic panel, CFD analysis, Discrete phase injection, Heat and mass transfer

nije evidentirano