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Abstract

This study examined the power generation capabilities of FPV systems and the advantages of employing active cooling on floating solar panels. Floating solar panels exhibit improved efficiency due to operating at lower temperatures facilitated by the cooling effect of water evaporation. Additionally, the high availability of water renders the application of the active cooling technique economically viable. This study developed a comprehensive simulation of a floating solar system, integrating a mathematical model to validate experimental findings and a temperature model derived from an energy equation specific to floating solar panels. This model calculates the heat transfer among the three different materials in the solar panels and accounts for various boundary conditions. This model exhibits better accuracy performance than other temperature models, such as the NOCT or the lumped system model. Notably, it demonstrates a lower root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.97℃ in the passive cooling mode, 2.36℃ in the water film cooling mode, and 1.71℃ in the water spray cooling mode. Therefore, this model effectively predicts solar panels’ surface temperature for different cooling methods. The experimental results demonstrate that floating solar panels maintain an average temperature of 4℃ lower than rooftop solar panels, resulting in a 3.27% power increase. With water film cooling, the average temperature decreased by 19.39℃ than without water cooling, leading to a 6.70% increase in power generation. After deducting the energy consumption of the cooling system, the net energy gain reached 5.27%. Similarly, with water spray cooling, the average temperature decreased by 16.29℃, resulting in a 6.38 increase in power generation, with a net energy gain of 3.93%.

Keywords: floating solar photovoltaic system, active cooling on solar panels, solar panel efficiency enhancement, optimized operating temperature of active cooling

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