Currently, society is moving towards more renewable forms of energy, with one being Solar Energy. Many homeowners are buying/installing solar panels in their homes in an effort to reduce the cost of their monthly energy bill and/or move towards renewable energy. Unfortunately, a problem with solar panels is that they become inefficient as the temperature of the solar panel increases as it is being hit by the rays of the sun throughout the day. This is due to the fact that the increase in temperature changed the properties of the semiconductors within the panels, as mentioned by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewables. A solution to this problem would allow homeowners to reap more energy outputs from the solar panels, allowing for more use from the sun and a decrease in use from electric-providing companies.
The group’s main focus on this project will be to address the problem of solar panels becoming inefficient due to temperature increases on the panel which decrease the output power of a panel. As the panels in a residential home are the size of a roof, it’s not possible for the team to try and solve the problem at that scale. A typical residential panel can have dimensions of 65” x 39”. Instead, the team will scale down to a smaller solar panel to work with that will allow for transportation in a vehicle and allow us to work on it at that scale. Solar panels are continuously exposed to sunlight as they rely on it to produce energy, however, when solar panels increase in temperature, the output current increases exponentially causing the voltage output to decrease. A way to determine the efficiency of a solar panel's tolerance to heat is to look at the manufacturer's data sheet which will provide you with the temperature coefficient. For example, a temperature coefficient could be -.258% per 1 degree Celsius, therefore, for every degree above 25℃, the maximum power of the solar panel falls by .258%, but it will increase by .258% for every degree below 25℃. This means for high temperatures like we are experiencing now, solar panels are losing a lot of voltage output which concludes that you are not getting as much power for your home as you could be. Another physical constraint is to be able to simulate the heat that a regular solar panel would be exposed to and to not have the heat dissipate faster on a smaller-scale panel so that we are able to conduct more accurate validations. We are focusing on this problem because solar panels are starting to become more mainstream and the ever-increasing heat poses a huge issue to the functionality of solar panels. The team plans to have bi-weekly meetings to discuss our findings, discuss the action plan for our next milestone, and commit to executing our plan. We have a shared Google Drive where we are able to have our research and work in the same folder for easy access and reference.
Figure 1: Solar Cell - Power vs. Temperature. https://www.cleanenergyreviews.info/blog/most-efficient-solar-panels
One challenge the team anticipates facing is reducing the temperature of the solar panel enough to make a difference in power output. The panel should be able to maintain a lower temperature than an average solar panel, but if it is not enough to increase power output, then the problem has not been solved. On the other hand, the team needs to avoid designing the panel in a way that the temperature is brought down lower than it needs to be. Once the panel reaches a temperature that allows it to produce the most power, cooling it down beyond that point would be a waste of energy and resources. Finally, scalability will most likely become an issue. The team’s design will be intended for use on the roofs of residential homes. However, for the purpose of this project, the panel will be scaled down to a size that is more manageable. This means that the team needs to make sure that the small-scale design will be just as effective on a larger scale so that it can be used as intended.
Figure 2: Overheating of Solar Panels. https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/how-hot-can-solar-panels-get
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