Experimental investigation of evaporative cooling for enhancing photovoltaic panels efficiency

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the effect of cooling of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels by evaporative cooling. The evaporation latent heat was utilized to absorb the generated heat from the body of a PV module to reduce its temperature. A simple and effective experimental setup was designed, constructed and tested under outdoor conditions. The back surface of a PV panel was wetted and exposed to surrounding. Water was supplied to the back of the PV panel from a tank by gravity. A series of experiments under real conditions of Riyadh city showing the effectiveness of the method were conducted and analyzed. More than 20 degrees C reduction in PV panel temperature and around 14% increment in electrical power generation efficiency were achieved compared with a referent PV panel. Uncertainty analysis was performed to assess the accuracy of the results.