4 Different Methods for Cooling Solar PV Panels 

I have developed such a solar thermal panel, without any copper tube exchangers, now on test in Australia and by April 2019 the patent will be approved www.thermaltricity-int.com

This seems like something that could be used in conjunction with concentrated solar either by use of Fresnel lenses or parabolic mirrors. Any thoughts on that?

That is actually the ideal situation, in spite of the extra maintenance it needs. We really need to get manufacturers to add water channels to panels in the factory - just a punched aluminum plate like they use on cheap refrigerators. Renewable electricity generation with free hot water - or at least warmer water that costs less to heat - would cut energy costs for the average 'sun belt' homeowner a lot.

@@alexriddles492 I agree this would be the way to go for a commercial installation. The amount of cooling would make way more hot water than just about any home needs. Using either a lens or a parabolic mirror requires hardware to point the array (or at least the mirrors/lenses) and that hardware and the lenses and mirrors themselves would require a lot of maintenance. It would be a little impractical for a full-home permanent installation.

If you have a swimming pool, you could dump that heat into it

Thank you for your appreciation. Helps me do more

Hi, Then what do you think is the most efficient method to handle that much heat(from a sub Saharan region)?

@@ahruf Mount the panels so they get as much air as possible. No method of cooling the panels has been found to be worth it when you consider the cost per watt-hour gained outside of extreme environments (space). Water cooling is the closest, but only if you need the heated water - in other words, you need all that hot water for something else, and would have had to heat it with some other method anyway. (i.e. Cooler climates using it to heat buildings.)

You are welcome

You will find plenty of research articles on it

Isn't that option 3 as described in the video?

But they are not being manufactured that way which is the point ​@@richardaversa7128

Goodluck!

Good to know

Can I have more info about it.

Any info about it Eric?

If you get a but load of those chips from China cheap. Place them all over on the back with heat sinks on the other side. You could get more power towards your system I'd think..

Use Heat Pipe technology to cool down the lower part of the panels. It is a self driven Recuperative type Thermodynamic cycle.

You can purchase them from electronics market. In Karachi you can get then from Regal near saddar. There are electronics market in most cities in Pakistan. You can also get some electronics from hardware store

Which electronic you want to buy ?

imdad Ali Mahessar which electronic you want to buy ?

Thank you. Reference was a research paper on Thermo electric coolers used in conjunction with solar panels.

Synergy Files can we use it as a related literature on our study?

You cannot use the video as a reference. The reference has has to be the original source article. You can search for the article on google scholar. Unfortunately I had the article in my old laptop. The study was carried out in a University in India that much I can remember. If it is a school project, you can use this video as reference

Synergy Files okay thank you very much sir

good day sir, do you have the link of the literature? i cant see it on google scholar. thank you for your response.

Shades the sun I'd think

@@NwoDispatcher not necessarily. Some materials are wavelength selective for absorption. Some laser focal lenses used with CO2 lasers at 10600 nanometer, infrared, are above 99% transmissive to infrared but completely opaque to visible light, including what was it 600 nm red pointing laser. Most CO2 lasers do not use that material however because often a pointing laser is aimed through that same focal lens so you can see where the CO2 beam will hit when it is output.. E glass is the name of what is used in windows that appears to have high transmission of visible light but attenuates the IR portion of the spectrum. It would be worth looking in to but you might need vacuum between solar panel and IR panel to stop convection. And the solar panel would warp if you put vacuum on it. I dont think that could be cost effective. And if it were, the high end panels would already be using it for the face glass for that very reason. Maybe that's what those ultra black panels are? If that is the case I dont think you could gain very much compared to the extra cost but over 25 years in an enviroment where 5 degrees lower operating temperature is beneficial it could be worth it, if you want to pay more upfront for the panels. I'm thinking if you are gonna go to the trouble to try to keep temp down you are gonna have to take heat away from the panel. Think about it, if a panel converts 20% to flowing electrons, the other 80% is some combination of reflected radiation and convection of heat. Lets say 60% is some combination of reflected, re-radiated or convected, that means you need 100 watts of heat removal on a 100watt panel to keep it at ambient temperature. It is going to have to be fluid cooled some way.

Yes that is done is STEG cells

Peltier are not very efficient and by themselves only move the heat a small distance. You still have to move that heat somewhere besides beneath the panel, heat rises. Unless the other side of your peltier was liquid cooled you would do more harm than good with the tremendous wattage you would be burning in the peltier units. Just figure up what a whole solar panel covered with peltier units would cost, no need to pursue that further.

@@laserflexr6321 ..thanks for clearing that up..mybe it would work for a few moments..later when the heat is equal than the difference between hot & cold becomes smaller.. that's would not work very effectively..tq for the reply

You can use expensive coolants but at the end of the day, you will still need the cooling jacket.

PV watts

It would but the glue should be a thermal compound and hink sink should be exposed to moving air

It will be elevated of course to allow the air to move behind it freely. I don't know of any thermal compound that will be economical for such a big job, so I thought a glue mixed with a HEALTHY DOSE of fine aluminium shavings may do the trick...

True. We need in silicon PV we need photons with energy of 1.3 ev. Rest arent used up and result in heat. New PV panels make use of photons with multiple bandgap energies. Please see multi junction solar cells

The plants I touch never seem to be "too hot" so they figured out how to convert sunlight to energy without overheating...keep on thinking!

@@loucinci3922 plants use water

TEGs have very poor efficiency even for high performing units. they are very expensive due to their relatively low production volumes (mostly small gadgets and hobby makers.) It would also act as an insulator, preventing the panel from dissipating heat, and on a hot day would itself (the TEG) become heat soaked and progressively decrease output, while still insulating the panel. It's a good idea, but until there are some significant materials tech advancement in the area, the feasibility for TEGs as heat harvesters is low.

I did mention that cleaning of solar panel with water is not environmentally friendly. This practice however has caught the wind unfortunately and is being used in many areas around the world. I am all for solar thermal technology. All economizers in hot climate countries should be solar

Looking forward to hearing your views on what is the cost of expensive, when you related to PVT hybrid solar panels? I have designed and developed a thermal cooling package kit, you can assemble yourself and retrofit to any PV brand in the world up to 300 watt sizes. I just shipped 28 kits to an Australian, to fit to his 28 LG 300 watt panels to heat his swimming pool. My cost to him was $165.00 per kit plus shipping

I now have a PV EPC provider in Mexico who wants to acquire the exclusive rights to my thermal cooling panel kits in Mexico with a office in the USA over the border of the Ba Ja. To other such players in the selling and installations of PV systems, larger than 10kW, with space for a large PVT developed flat pack tank (also assembled on site) to make sure the heated cold water does not increase above 30c, then feel free to contact me. My office is in Hong Kong, product shipped out of China, with, or without the PV panel, now as low as $0.34 cents a watt, contact me

@@erichawkins3915 Hi Eric, I'm interest in your product. Could you please contact me for more information at chanin.s@primeroadgroup.com

Haaa. With water sprays

Yes solar panels are also be covered by Shadow nets and jute bag...

could work, but they are also extremely power hungry. one small 40x40mm peltier plate can easily swallow up 50 to 100 watts of power.... but using them to generate a little extra energy through the seebek effect (as in teg's or thermoelectric generators?) that might work.... in theory.

Got it now, thanks alot for the good advice.

Safdar Karim you dont have to put cold water. Normal water at 20 to 30 degree should be more than enough. Your solar panel temperature goes up to 70 degrees. So with that differential, it would be difficult to crack glass

The survival of solar panels in conditions involving constantly repeated rain downpours as happens in summer in Australia, does not support your theory. The glass on modern solar panels is toughened and designed to withstand the extremes of climate including snow and rain and the panels I purchased in 2012, are designed to withstand 5 kPa UDL.

I sugested this to my California freind who contacted me about his PV panels over heating, and my sugestion about useing his garden hose pipe to prove my point, worked without the toughend glass cracking What is already happening in very hot countries, even happened last year in the UK, is the wafers start to crack. A PVT solar panel is about cooling the back of a PV panel at the lowest cost to improve PV efficency as well as gaining a by product of heated water to 30c, for use as a Pre heat back up by a water to water heat pump. Only recomended for use in commercial applications like the food and drinks industry to fish farms and Aquponics

@Synergy Files if you read the complete maintains manual of pv panel .It said that water you put on panel must have maximum 25% temperature difference .Otherwise glass can be damaged. So in very hot regions like Pakistan,Saudia its better to consider this factor while designing cooling system.

With glass for PV panels made of toughen glass, I have no experience of cracking glass. I have developed a solar thermal panel you place behind the PV panel and pump cold water across the heat exchanger at the back and this increases total energy output per panel of 3 times as much

ha ha ha ha

You sound like you can help. Whats the most affordable way to cool bifacial solar panels?