In this study, a comparative performance analysis was performed between a conventional photovoltaic
system and a low-concentration photovoltaic system. Two typical photovoltaic modules and two compound
parabolic concentrating photovoltaic systems were examined. A Cooling system was employed
to lower the temperature of the solar cells in each of the two configurations. Experimental and numerical
investigations of the performance of the two arrangements with and without cooling were presented.
Experiments were conducted outdoors at the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, subjected
to the hot climate conditions of New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria, Egypt (Longitude/Latitude: E
029420/N 30550). A comprehensive system model was established, which comprises an optical model,
coupled with thermal and electrical models. The coupled model was developed analytically and solved
numerically, using MATLAB software, to assess the overall performance of the two configurations, considering
the concentration ratio of the concentrated photovoltaic system to be 2.4X. The results indicated
that cooling the solar panels considerably improved the electrical power yield of the photovoltaic systems.
By employing cooling, the temperatures of the conventional photovoltaic system and the concentrated
photovoltaic system were effectively lowered by approximately 25% and 30%, respectively,
resulting in a significant enhancement in the electrical power output of the photovoltaic system by
11% and that of the concentrated photovoltaic system by 15%. Furthermore, the results revealed that
the concentrated photovoltaic system outperformed the non-concentrated photovoltaic system, for both
non-cooling and cooling cases, by 33% and 52%, respectively. Finally, experimental verification of the
numerical results revealed a good agreement for both configurations, with an average error of 4% and
5% for the photovoltaic systems and the concentrated photovoltaic systems, respectively. |
