Cooling down roof mounted solar panels by optimizing the natural air movement around them

摘要

Weather circumstances, such as wind, temperature, and dust storms, can be considered as major factors that have a significant impact on the performance of solar panels. Iraq has been chosen in this study to examine the solar panels performance because of its rough and variable weather conditions around the year. For instance, Iraq has a long summer which lasts for six months, with a high sun radiation and an ambient temperature that rises to 50 °C (122 °F) in shade. Moreover, sun radiation in winter remains at high levels due to the low cloud cover. High temperature is the most challenging problems effecting the efficiency of solar panels in Iraq. Solar panels cells are highly sensitive to the temperature, the higher the temperature of the solar cells, the lower the out coming performance. In this research, the impact of the gap size between solar panels and the rooftop on the air movement velocity is examined. The temperature below solar panels is also measured. Computer simulation method is adopted in this research. Two solar panel designs with various rises are tested on a typical house roof in Iraq. It was found that the gap size between the solar panels and the rooftop in addition to their distribution on the roof have an impact on the air velocity around the solar panels, hence on their temperature. Furthermore, Solar panels performance can be improved by adjusting the rise of the solar panels.