V-Trough Concentrator with Integrated Cooling for Performance Enhancement of Rooftop PV in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of INDIA

Publication date: Available online 2 May 2016 Source:Perspectives in Science Author(s): Siva Naga Raju, K Srikanth Reddy, Lokesh Panwar, Rajesh Kumar In this paper, authors present an experimental demonstration of performance enhancement and parameter variation analysis of a rooftop solar photovoltaic system equipped with V-Trough concentrator and integrated cooling technique. The performance enhancement is analysed for two cases viz. performance with concentration and performance with concentration plus back and front surface cooling. The V-Trough concentrator with integrated cooling system resulted in improvement of fill factor by 15.14% compared to the un-concentrated and uncooled module. The maximum reduction in back surface temperature is observed to be 19.7%, 35.7% and 53.11% through back surface cooling, front surface and integrated front and back surface cooling respectively. Similarly, the reduction in front surface cooling is 17.68%, 39.95% and 46.9% in the three cases respectively. While, the average increment in power at MPP due to V-Trough concentrator with and without cooling is 38% and 26.5% respectively. Therefore, the proposed experimental setup can give improved performance with respect to both electrical and physical/thermal properties of the photovoltaic conversion for arid and semi-arid regions of the country.

Source: Perspectives in Science - May 1, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: research