Comparative study of water film heat exchangers for cooling photovoltaic panels

Abstract

The paper presents a study of cooling photovoltaic (PV) panels for predefined external conditions. The efficiency of photovoltaic panels is evaluated from the point of view of its operating temperature. A numerical model is realized by using ANSYS-Fluent software and the solution proposed for cooling the PV panels consists of using a film heat exchanger, using water as heat transfer agent. The aim of the study consists in the comparative study of the heat exchanger efficiency when the thickness of the water film is varied. The results are evaluating the increase of the power produced by PV panels when a reduction of temperature is achieved.