Improving the power of PV module by a surface cooling system

This study was conducted to improve the power of PV module using a surface cooling system One of the unique characteristics of PV module is power drop as a module surface temperature increases due to the characteristics of crystalline silicon used in a solar cell. To overcome the output power reduction by temperature effect, module surface cooling using water circulation was performed. By cooling effect, module surface temperature drops maximally $20.3^{\circ}C$ predicting more than 10% power enhancement. Maximum deviation of voltage and current between a control and cooled module differed by 5.1 V and O.9A respectively. The maximum power enhancement by cooling system was 12.4% compared with a control module. In addition, cooling system can wash the module surface by water circulation so that extra power up of PV module can be achieved by removing particles on the surface which interfere solar radiation on the cells. Cooling system, besides, can reduce the maintenance cost and prevent accidents as a safety precaution while cleaning works. This system can be applied to the existing photovoltaic power generation facilities without any difficulties as well.

표면냉각을 통한 PV 모듈의 출력 향상에 관한 연구