TY - JOUR
TI - Performance investigation of photovoltaic modules by back surface water cooling
AU - Bashir Muhammad Anser
AU - Ali Hafiz Muhammad
AU - Amber Khuram Pervez
AU - Bashir Muhammad Waqas
AU - Ali Hassan
AU - Imran Shahid
AU - Kamran Muhammad Sajid
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2018
VL - 22
IS - 6
SP - 2401
EP - 2411
PT - Article
AB - The temperature of the photovoltaic module has an adverse effect on the  performance of photovoltaic modules. The photovoltaic module converts a  small portion of energy from solar radiations into electricity while the  remaining energy wastes in the form of heat. In this study, water cooled  PV/T system was analyzed to enhance the efficiency by absorbing the heat  generated by the photovoltaic modules and allowing the photovoltaic module  to work at comparatively low temperature. For this system, four photovoltaic  modules of two different types were used. To investigate the cooling effect,  two modules were modified by making ducts at their back surface having inlet  and outlet manifolds for water flow. The measurements were taken with  cooling and without cooling of photovoltaic modules. The temperature was  measured at inlet, outlet and at different points at the back of  Photovoltaic modules. It was found that there was a linear trend between the  module efficiency and temperature. The average module temperature of c-Si  and p-Si modules without cooling was 13.6% and 7.2% lower respectively than  the same modules without cooling. As a result of temperature drop, the  average module electrical efficiency of c-Si and p-Si was 13% and 6.2%  higher respectively compared to the modules without cooling. Flowing water  also gains useful heat from PV module so the resultant overall energy of the  system was much higher.