Power Parameters Monitoring and Temperature Dependent Performance Analysis of Photovoltaic Panels

Year 2024, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 9 - 14, 29.06.2024

Uğurcan Şan , Mehmet Ersin Aytekin , Ali Yüce

https://doi.org/10.46572/naturengs.1446878

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) efficiency can be defined as the ability of solar cells to generate electricity at the highest rate from light energy. Today, there is a rapid transition from energy production based on fossil fuels, which have irreversible effects on the environment, to energy production with renewable energy sources. The discovery of photovoltaic systems in semiconductor technology and their use in energy production makes energy production with solar energy indispensable. However, the efficiency of PV panels is highly affected by environmental factors. In particular, overheating of the panels reduces the panel efficiency considerably due to the nature of the semiconductor material. On the other hand, another challenge in PV systems is to analyze the performance of the PV system under varying load conditions by considering many parameters such as sunlight intensity, direction/tilt, weather conditions, temperature, and panel at the same time. Therefore, in this study, an Internet of Things (IoT) based PV panel performance test system is designed to facilitate data collection for efficiency analysis of PV systems. Thanks to this system, remote monitoring of PV system performance is realized with IoT. The contribution of the cooling fans placed at specified locations on the panels to the efficiency of the PV panels was investigated. Overheating of PV panels is prevented by using cooling techniques. At the same time, performance data of both the system with and without cooling system were stored in the cloud environment. Thanks to the IoT application, the current, voltage and power values of the PV panel were monitored instantaneously. The data collected in the cloud in the uncooled and active cooling state of the PV panels were analyzed graphically. In the findings, it was observed that there was a 4.7% performance increase in PV panel efficiency using active cooling system.

Keywords

Photovoltaic cooling, Photovoltaic efficiency, Remote monitoring of photovoltaic panels, Internet of Things, Arduino

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