Cooling the photovoltaic panels with using thermoelectric effect and performance investigation

Energy demand is increasing everyday with growing human population and new technology in the world.Sun has active role to create renewable energy sources and fossil fuels.Fossil fuels are used as a source of energy nowadays but the fact that near future these sources will be exhausted. While obtaining energy by solar panels, panels working under direct sunlight, decreases performance because of the high temperatures. On the other hand due to Peltier effect, one side of the thermoelectric modules is cooling and the other side is warm when the current supplied from direct current. Taking advantage of the cooling characteristic of these materials, it is possible to avoid performance drops due to the temperature increase in solar panels. In this thesis, a photovoltaic panel was cooled by connecting a thermoelectric module, and cooling effect on performance was investigated. Performances of two equivalent photovoltaic panels with and without a thermoelectric module were obtained experimentally. Solar panels efficiency, power and exergy efficiency results were compared with the obtained measurements. Also, solar panel temperatures were compared with mathematical calculations and measured data.