Design and Analysis of Cooling System for Hybrid Solar Panel

Fossil fuel cater the most of the energy needs across the globe. Although this source of energy is relatively easy to use but Global warming and limited supply raise questions on its reliability. Solar Panels are one of the most popular solutions to this problem. Solar panels convert solar energy to

Project Title

Design and Analysis of Cooling System for Hybrid Solar Panel

Project Area of Specialization

Mechanical Engineering

Project Summary

Fossil fuel cater the most of the energy needs across the globe. Although this source of energy is relatively easy to use but Global warming and limited supply raise questions on its reliability. Solar Panels are one of the most popular solutions to this problem. Solar panels convert solar energy to electrical power without any significant adverse effect. The growth of solar panel energy farms is remarkable in recent years. The cumulative installed solar PV power capacity grew by 32% to 404.5 GW by the end of 2017, up from 306.4 GW in 2016.

 The problem with this source is its low efficiency that decreases when the temperature of its surface increases by 0.45% per degree increase from 25°C. Most solar panels are designed to work at a temperature of 25°C which becomes as high as 65°C during normal operation. A lot of research has been done on prediction the behaviour of solar panels with respect to this aspect. Researchers have developed Hybrid solar panels that utilize a cooling system to Control temperature of Solar Panels and extract useful thermal energy from it. Most of the progress done seems to be tilted towards predicting behaviour of solar panels while lesser is done for developing a suitable cooling system.

The methods develop to cool solar panels include Air water cooling system, liquid immersion techniques and passive cooling system. The gaps lies in the design of cooling system. Researchers have used cooling techniques like circulation of water in pipes or using air ducts to only validate their models or prove the increase in efficiency by pure experimental studies. In this project the design of a suitable cooling system along with mathematical modelling of system both will be done. Comparative study of heat exchanger/ thermal collectors by manipulating factors like cooling medium, heat transfer area, mass flow rates and heat exchanger layouts will help to develop a better solution that insure a net gain even without utilizing thermal energy extracted from panels.

Project Objectives

This project aims to minimize the effect of increasing temperature of solar panel due to absorbed solar radiations and higher ambient temperature. The intention is to develop a solution according to the climate of Islamabad. The end goal of project is to create a system that gives a net gain in electrical power even if one does not utilize the thermal energy extracted form solar panel. So the objectives of this project become:

• To design a Hybrid solar panel (PV/T) that gives a significant increase in electrical output as compared to PV panels.
• To optimize the solution and fabricate a prototype of the obtained solution.

The final Deliverable of the project is a Hybrid Solar Panel that has better electrical efficiency under real conditions.

Project Implementation Method

The project consists of mathematical modelling of PV panels and design of absorber for their cooling to enhance efficiency. The methodogy used will be as following:

1. Mathematical Modelling to predict behaviour of Solar Panel under climate conditinsof Islamabad.
2. Analytical Modelling of Different type of Absorbers 
3. Optimization and comparitive analysis of Heat absorbers
4. Prototyping and testing of designed hybrid panel

Benefits of the Project

Sustainability has become a key requirment of modren world where a lot of damage has been done to envirnoment due to inefficent designing of products. Solar Panels have become a reliable source of energy in 21st century but the problem is their low efficiency. The project aims to improve efficiency of solar panels and achieve following benefits:

1. More energy production per unit area form solar panels.
2. Improvement of solar cell performance in hot climate i.e improved efficiency.
3. Provide net electrical gain in Hybrid Solar panel by minimizing input power.
4. Produce electrical and useful thermal energy from a single unit for building integrated systems.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final deliverable of project is to produce a hybrid solar panel i.e one which provide both thermal and electrical energy.

• The protoyping will be done on a 300W panel
• Fluid used for cooling will be water.
• Electrical pumps will be used for circulation of water.
• The operating temperature of solar panel will be set inder 40C.
• The loss of effeicnecy will be lesser then 6.75% of rated power.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy

Required Resources

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