Behavioral Pattern of Photovoltaics Enhanced with Automatic Cooling Mechanism

Abstract

The increase in PV panel temperature with increasing level of solar power and solar flux is a major disadvantage when using Photovoltaics for electricity generation. Nigeria is a country that is blessed with enormous amount of sunlight throughout the year which should make it a good environment for the generation of electricity via photovoltaic technology. The daytime temperature of Nigeria is a major barrier towards the effective generation of electricity via photovoltaic technology. To remedy this issue of temperature, a cooling mechanism has to be considered in the process of any PV system design. An automatic cooling mechanism and an intelligent photovoltaic maximum power point tracker were deployed in the study. Experimental measurements were carried out in real outdoor conditions. The results of the study reveal an average increase of 6.42%, 7.77%, 18.34%, and 18.15% for voltage, current, power and efficiency respectively for the PV module under thermal regulation. This study demonstrates that cooling mechanism should be incorporated in the process of designing photovoltaic systems for optimum energy yield.