An Experimental Investigation on Utilization of Floral Foam as a Coolant Material to Aggrandize the Efficiency of Solar PV Panel

Solar Photovoltaic is a promising technology for the electricity generation for many of the developing countries. Solar Photovoltaic cell performance can be affected by parameters like operating temperature, irradiance and induced cell temperature. Temperature plays a major role in the electrical efficiency of the solar PV panel. If the cell temperature increases, the PV module loses itsconversion efficiency. So, it is necessary to maintain the temperature of a solar panel in order to extract the maximum efficiency in all the operating conditions. In our experimental work, a special cooling treatment were conducted on the solar PV panel by using floral foam packs in the bottom and thin film of pot water flow over the top surface. As the pot water temperature always stays 5°C –8°C less than that of the ambient temperature, it was selected as a coolant. Also the packed floral foam material in the bottom surface of the PV panel is in saturated conditions, which absorbs the generated heat effectively. Then this PV panel was tested along with the conventional PV panel for the comparison of the electrical efficiency. From the obtained results, it has been found that the efficiency of the PV panel with special cooling has improved the overall efficiency up to 60% more than that of the conventional PV panel