IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v3y2020i8d10.1038_s41893-020-0535-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Photovoltaic panel cooling by atmospheric water sorption–evaporation cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Renyuan Li

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

  • Yusuf Shi

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

  • Mengchun Wu

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

  • Seunghyun Hong

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

  • Peng Wang

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
    The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Abstract

More than 600 GW of photovoltaic panels are currently installed worldwide, with the predicted total capacity increasing very rapidly every year. One essential issue in photovoltaic conversion is the massive heat generation of photovoltaic panels under sunlight, which represents 75–96% of the total absorbed solar energy and thus greatly increases the temperature and decreases the energy efficiency and lifetime of photovoltaic panels. In this report we demonstrate a new and versatile photovoltaic panel cooling strategy that employs a sorption-based atmospheric water harvester as an effective cooling component. The atmospheric water harvester photovoltaic cooling system provides an average cooling power of 295 W m–2 and lowers the temperature of a photovoltaic panel by at least 10 °C under 1.0 kW m–2 solar irradiation in laboratory conditions. It delivered a 13–19% increase in electricity generation in a commercial photovoltaic panel in outdoor field tests conducted in the winter and summer in Saudi Arabia. The atmospheric water harvester based photovoltaic panel cooling strategy has little geographical constraint in terms of its application and has the potential to improve the electricity production of existing and future photovoltaic plants, which can be directly translated into less CO2 emission or less land occupation by photovoltaic panels. As solar power is taking centre stage in the global fight against climate change, atmospheric water harvester based cooling represents an important step toward sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Renyuan Li & Yusuf Shi & Mengchun Wu & Seunghyun Hong & Peng Wang, 2020. "Photovoltaic panel cooling by atmospheric water sorption–evaporation cycle," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(8), pages 636-643, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:8:d:10.1038_s41893-020-0535-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0535-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0535-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-020-0535-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Gan Huang & Jingyuan Xu & Christos N. Markides, 2023. "High-efficiency bio-inspired hybrid multi-generation photovoltaic leaf," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Anand, B. & Shankar, R. & Murugavelh, S. & Rivera, W. & Midhun Prasad, K. & Nagarajan, R., 2021. "A review on solar photovoltaic thermal integrated desalination technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    3. Youhong Guo & Weixin Guan & Chuxin Lei & Hengyi Lu & Wen Shi & Guihua Yu, 2022. "Scalable super hygroscopic polymer films for sustainable moisture harvesting in arid environments," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    4. Cengiz, Mazlum & Kayri, İsmail & Aydın, Hüseyin, 2024. "A collated overview on the evaporative cooling applications for photovoltaic modules," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    5. Tingxian Li & Minqiang Wu & Jiaxing Xu & Ruxue Du & Taisen Yan & Pengfei Wang & Zhaoyuan Bai & Ruzhu Wang & Siqi Wang, 2022. "Simultaneous atmospheric water production and 24-hour power generation enabled by moisture-induced energy harvesting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Al-Amri, Fahad & Saeed, Farooq & Mujeebu, Muhammad Abdul, 2022. "Novel dual-function racking structure for passive cooling of solar PV panels –thermal performance analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 100-113.
    7. Shan, He & Poredoš, Primož & Zou, Hao & Lv, Haotian & Wang, Ruzhu, 2023. "Perspectives for urban microenvironment sustainability enabled by decentralized water-energy-food harvesting," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    8. Carlos D. Díaz-Marín & Lorenzo Masetti & Miles A. Roper & Kezia E. Hector & Yang Zhong & Zhengmao Lu & Omer R. Caylan & Gustav Graeber & Jeffrey C. Grossman, 2024. "Physics-based prediction of moisture-capture properties of hydrogels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Seonggon Kim & Jong Ha Park & Jae Won Lee & Yongchan Kim & Yong Tae Kang, 2023. "Self-recovering passive cooling utilizing endothermic reaction of NH4NO3/H2O driven by water sorption for photovoltaic cell," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Tashtoush, Bourhan & Alyahya, Wa'ed & Al Ghadi, Malak & Al-Omari, Jamal & Morosuk, Tatiana, 2023. "Renewable energy integration in water desalination: State-of-the-art review and comparative analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 352(C).
    11. Bian, Bin & Shi, Le & Katuri, Krishna P. & Xu, Jiajie & Wang, Peng & Saikaly, Pascal E., 2020. "Efficient solar-to-acetate conversion from CO2 through microbial electrosynthesis coupled with stable photoanode," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    12. Wang, Wei-Wei & Chen, Jun-Wen & Zhang, Chun-Yu & Yang, Hong-Fei & Ji, Xiao-Wen & Zhang, Hong-Liang & Zhao, Fu-Yun & Cai, Yang, 2024. "Green thermal management of photovoltaic panels by the absorbent hydrogel evaporative (AHE) cooling jointly with 3D porous copper foam (CF) structure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    13. He Shan & Chunfeng Li & Zhihui Chen & Wenjun Ying & Primož Poredoš & Zhanyu Ye & Quanwen Pan & Jiayun Wang & Ruzhu Wang, 2022. "Exceptional water production yield enabled by batch-processed portable water harvester in semi-arid climate," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:8:d:10.1038_s41893-020-0535-4. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.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.