Design and Development of Solar Panel Cooling System Using Peltier Elements for Efficiency Increase

Author Name : Mr. R. Palani, Mr. A. Raghul, Mr. A. R. Rahul, Mr. S. Shreevarshan

ABSTRACT

Solar cell or photo voltaic cell in the solar panel converts the solar energy into electrical energy. The heat that is produced in the solar panel is not converted into any form of energy. This heat produced will reduce the efficiency of the panel and this heat produced should be eliminated so that the efficiency of the solar panel gets increased. To increase the efficiency of the solar panel, the cooling is done to the solar panel so that the heat is removed thus the efficiency of the solar panel gets increased. Our objective is that to compare the efficiency of the solar panel without cooling, with cooling using water, with cooling using phase changing material and without cooling using the peltier and separate readings are taken for each experiment. The phase change material is the one which absorbs or releases the energy while heating or cooling by changing their phase. They use chemical bonds to store and release heat. Whereas in another method, the thermo electric coolers operate according to the Peltier effect. The effect creates a temperature difference by transferring heat between two electrical junctions. When the current flows through the junctions of the two conductors, heat is removed at one junction and cooling occurs. By comparing these three methods of cooling and non-cooling we can come to a conclusion that the change in the temperature will be reflected on the efficiency of the solar panel.

Keywords: Solar panel, Thermal Energy storage, Phase Change Material, Peltier effect.