IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i3p1070-d1039919.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency Improvement of Photovoltaic Panels: A Novel Integration Approach with Cooling Tower

Author

Listed:
  • Emad Abdelsalam

    (Electrical and Energy Engineering Department, Al Hussein Technical University, Amman 11831, Jordan)

  • Hamza Alnawafah

    (Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA)

  • Fares Almomani

    (Chemical Engineering Department, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar)

  • Aya Mousa

    (Electrical and Energy Engineering Department, Al Hussein Technical University, Amman 11831, Jordan)

  • Mohammad Jamjoum

    (Electrical and Energy Engineering Department, Al Hussein Technical University, Amman 11831, Jordan)

  • Malek Alkasrawi

    (Industrial Assessment Center, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA)

Abstract

Overheating of photovoltaic (PV) panels decreases their efficiency and lifetime, and subsequently increases the levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Passive PV cooling would enhance the PV operational stability and durability. The cooling tower (CT) technology offers an attractive approach for zero-cost capability. In this work, we developed and customized a CT specific for passive PV cooling. Since the dense downdrafted cooled air gained high velocity, a turbine was installed at the bottom of the CT for power production. At the height’s ambient temperature, the CT cooled the air from 50 °C down to 30 °C. The cooled air at 30 °C has enough capacity to cool the PV panels. This cooling capacity improved the average annual efficiency of the PV panels by 6.83%. The design specifications of the CT have the highest performance, with the maximum radius of PV area of panels that can be cooled at 50 m. Furthermore, the current design could operate during the night for power production with minimum operational cost.

Suggested Citation

  • Emad Abdelsalam & Hamza Alnawafah & Fares Almomani & Aya Mousa & Mohammad Jamjoum & Malek Alkasrawi, 2023. "Efficiency Improvement of Photovoltaic Panels: A Novel Integration Approach with Cooling Tower," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-13, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:3:p:1070-:d:1039919
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/3/1070/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/3/1070/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jinyue Yan & Ying Yang & Pietro Elia Campana & Jijiang He, 2019. "City-level analysis of subsidy-free solar photovoltaic electricity price, profits and grid parity in China," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(8), pages 709-717, August.
    2. Teo, H.G. & Lee, P.S. & Hawlader, M.N.A., 2012. "An active cooling system for photovoltaic modules," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 309-315.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emad Abdelsalam & Hamza Alnawafah & Fares Almomani & Aya Mousa & Hasan Qandil, 2023. "Enhancing the Efficiency of Bi-Facial Photovoltaic Panels: An Integration Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-14, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Libo Zhang & Qian Du & Dequn Zhou, 2021. "Grid Parity Analysis of China’s Centralized Photovoltaic Generation under Multiple Uncertainties," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Lu, Yashun & Li, Guiqiang, 2023. "Potential application of electrical performance enhancement methods in PV/T module," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    3. Lan, Haifeng & Gou, Zhonghua & Yang, Linchuan, 2020. "House price premium associated with residential solar photovoltaics and the effect from feed-in tariffs: A case study of Southport in Queensland, Australia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 907-916.
    4. Zhixin Zhang & Min Chen & Teng Zhong & Rui Zhu & Zhen Qian & Fan Zhang & Yue Yang & Kai Zhang & Paolo Santi & Kaicun Wang & Yingxia Pu & Lixin Tian & Guonian Lü & Jinyue Yan, 2023. "Carbon mitigation potential afforded by rooftop photovoltaic in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Ruoping, Yan & Xiaohui, Yu & Fuwei, Lu & Huajun, Wang, 2020. "Study of operation performance for a solar photovoltaic system assisted cooling by ground heat exchangers in arid climate, China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 102-110.
    6. Sanzana Tabassum & Tanvin Rahman & Ashraf Ul Islam & Sumayya Rahman & Debopriya Roy Dipta & Shidhartho Roy & Naeem Mohammad & Nafiu Nawar & Eklas Hossain, 2021. "Solar Energy in the United States: Development, Challenges and Future Prospects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-65, December.
    7. Du, Hua & Han, Qi & de Vries, Bauke & Sun, Jun, 2024. "Community solar PV adoption in residential apartment buildings: A case study on influencing factors and incentive measures in Wuhan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 354(PA).
    8. Jiang, Hou & Lu, Ning & Huang, Guanghui & Yao, Ling & Qin, Jun & Liu, Hengzi, 2020. "Spatial scale effects on retrieval accuracy of surface solar radiation using satellite data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    9. Hongli Liu & Xiaoyu Yan & Jinhua Cheng & Jun Zhang & Yan Bu, 2021. "Driving Factors for the Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity in Technical Efficiency of China’s New Energy Industry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-21, July.
    10. Li, Wenjia & Hao, Yong, 2017. "Efficient solar power generation combining photovoltaics and mid-/low-temperature methanol thermochemistry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 377-385.
    11. Sargunanathan, S. & Elango, A. & Mohideen, S. Tharves, 2016. "Performance enhancement of solar photovoltaic cells using effective cooling methods: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 382-393.
    12. Jiang, Hou & Yao, Ling & Lu, Ning & Qin, Jun & Zhang, Xiaotong & Liu, Tang & Zhang, Xingxing & Zhou, Chenghu, 2024. "Exploring the optimization of rooftop photovoltaic scale and spatial layout under curtailment constraints," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    13. Zhang, Yijie & Ma, Tao & Elia Campana, Pietro & Yamaguchi, Yohei & Dai, Yanjun, 2020. "A techno-economic sizing method for grid-connected household photovoltaic battery systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    14. Chen, Hao & Gao, Xin-Ya & Liu, Jian-Yu & Zhang, Qian & Yu, Shiwei & Kang, Jia-Ning & Yan, Rui & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2020. "The grid parity analysis of onshore wind power in China: A system cost perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 22-30.
    15. Hao, Daning & Qi, Lingfei & Tairab, Alaeldin M. & Ahmed, Ammar & Azam, Ali & Luo, Dabing & Pan, Yajia & Zhang, Zutao & Yan, Jinyue, 2022. "Solar energy harvesting technologies for PV self-powered applications: A comprehensive review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 678-697.
    16. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika, 2017. "Measurement of returns to scale on large photovoltaic power stations in the United States and Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 306-320.
    17. Rounis, Efstratios Dimitrios & Athienitis, Andreas & Stathopoulos, Theodore, 2021. "Review of air-based PV/T and BIPV/T systems - Performance and modelling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1729-1753.
    18. Wassim Salameh & Jalal Faraj & Elias Harika & Rabih Murr & Mahmoud Khaled, 2021. "On the Optimization of Electrical Water Heaters: Modelling Simulations and Experimentation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-12, June.
    19. Zhang, Yusheng & Ma, Chao & Yang, Yang & Pang, Xiulan & Lian, Jijian & Wang, Xin, 2022. "Capacity configuration and economic evaluation of a power system integrating hydropower, solar, and wind," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    20. Shiravi, Amir Hossein & Firoozzadeh, Mohammad & Lotfi, Marzieh, 2022. "Experimental study on the effects of air blowing and irradiance intensity on the performance of photovoltaic modules, using Central Composite Design," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:3:p:1070-:d:1039919. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.