Desenvolvimento de um sistema de resfriamento para painéis fotovoltaicos

Abstract

The use of solar energy has been gaining more and more scale in recente decades. Thermal collectors and photovoltaic panels has been used for heating fluids and converting light into electricity, respectively. In this process, the conversion efficiency is reduced due to overheating of photovoltaic cell, therefore, cooling the panel is an important measure to imporove efficiency. In this sense, a heat exchanger was built to cool a commercial photovoltaic panel. Installed under the panel, the heat exchanger is made up of aluminum sheets and a grid of copper tubes for water flow.. Thermocouples were installed at different points of the heat exchanger, the panel and the cooling water passage. A rock wool blanket was applied over the aluminum – copper assembly and fixed to the lower part of the photovoltaic panel using an aluminum plate. Experiments were carried out considering three water flow rates: 1.2; 1.8 and 2.4 L/min. Temperature curves were created as a function of time in the three water flow conditions. A direct relationship was observed between the reduction in temperature and the increase in water flow, an effect that contribute to improving the efficiency of converting sunlight into electricity and also reduce panel degradation.