How do you cool solar PV panels?
Do you know that solar panels are not at their best behavior when they become too hot? That is true. While solar PV may be amazing devices that produce electricity and have no moving components, they are a bit sensitive about heat, the hotter they get the lesser they perform, or in other words they like the light, but they don’t like the heat in Areas where they are the most beneficial, that is the Sun self, they can lose nearly twenty to twenty-five percent of their efficiency because of high temperatures, which can reach more than 80 degree centigrade.
So a hundred watt panel would be making only 75 watts at most and it gets really hot over the scale of installation and over the lifetime of the panels, which is thirty years. This could mean significant loss of energy.
So what can be done about this? Fortunately, there are a few solutions: firstly, for hot region, thin film panels are ideal compared to crystalline silicon. Gallium arsenide panel, for instance, are much less sensitive to heat.
They hold their performance even in very hot regions, the Texas, Australia, Egypt or the Middle East. The second solution that is often used is an initiative not taken by solar panel manufacturers, but by people themselves.
It is the water spray option. Automated systems have been created that switch on water space once the panel gets too hot. The water soaks up the heat and cools the panel down. However, this may be an easy solution, but not the most efficient as a spake and dropped unevenly on the panel.
Furthermore, you can lose a lot of water, and this system also uses power, although it has to be mentioned that the power it requires each move is much less than what it is able to recruit. The third solution is a water jacket made out of aluminium.
This is a very robust solution, but is expensive? Panels are placed on what is essentially a cold plate. Water circulates through the plate by means of a pump, it collects the excess heat from the panels and dissipates it by means of a cooling tower or a connector.
It is the final solution, however, that is the most exciting. There is something called phase change, material or PCM, which you may have come across in household products. The quality of this material is that it can absorb a lot of heat without raising the temperature.
Pcm can later release the heat when the ambient conditions change or become colder. There are a variety of PCM products available with different temperature ranges. You can select the PCM for the temperature.
You would like an object to remain already in the desert. Environment. Pcm are used to absorb extra heat released during the day by electronic and electrical machinery. This heat is dissipated later during the night.
Pcm are ideal match to be used in conjunction with solar panels. Packets of PCM can be placed underneath the panel which will not allow the heat to build up during the day, and they will release the heat during the night when the panels are not in operation.
Plus ice is an example of PCM product that can be used in conjunction with the solar panel. It should be noted that if the solar panel temperature remains below the rated maximum temperature, then research has shown that there light can be extended from 30 years to 50 years.
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