Solar photovoltaics is a growing popular sustainable power option. One of the biggest pitfalls with PV is the significant reduction in conversion efficiency as the temperature increases. Crystalline silicon solar cells are the leading standard and have a reduction in conversion efficiency of approximately 0.4–0.5% for every degree Celsius of temperature rise. As a result, there is a desire to cost-effectively cool PV modules to increase power production. Due to the relatively low power production for the amount of PV surface area needed to be cooled, many attempts at cooling have had implications preventing their widespread use. However, as the production cost of PV solar cells and the availability of fossil fuels continue to decrease, the demand for more efficient PV systems is increasing. For these reasons, I have examined a few promising methods of PV cooling to further explore the feasibility of worthwhile PV cooling systems.
The goal of this project was to prototype three different PV cooling systems to explore each one’s effectiveness and feasibility in the hope of furthering the development and implementation of PV cooling methods. The cooling systems that were designed were modeled, prototyped and constructed. As suspected the module observed a 20°C increase in surface temperature, reaching a temperature of 65ºC when connected in a circuit to a power resistor. The first cooling method utilized a large aluminum heat sink centered on the back of a mono-facial commercial PV panel. Here an average surface temperature of 48°C at the center of the module was observed. The next cooling method tested was a combination of the large aluminum heat sink in with flat copper heat pipes attached. Here the back of the module maintained a temperature of approximately 40°C. Lastly, a liquid cooling system consisting of a small submersible pump and a perforated tube to spread the flow of water evenly across the modules working surface was developed. In this case, the module temperature dropped down to approximately 29°C. At this point, the cost-effectiveness and economics behind each prototype would have to be evaluated to validate any potential real-world applications.