Published Paper Details:

Solar energy is the most abundant source of energy available on earth. This can be used by converting it into either thermal energy or electric energy with the help of collector & photovoltaic cell. PV cell is one of the most popular renewable energy products. It can directly convert the solar radiation into electricity which can be utilized to power household appliances. However, during the operation of the PV cell, only around 15% of solar radiation is converted to electricity with the rest converted to heat. The electrical efficiency will decrease when the operating temperature of the PV module increases. In this work, we developed two different cooling techniques (one passive & one active) to maintain the temperature of PV module & compared with conventional panel under natural convection. For the active cooling, wood wool is attached at the backside of the panel. The water is provided on that after 2 hours for heat removal. For the passive cooling, honeycomb fins made up of aluminium sheet of 0.8 mm thickness are used & pressed fit at the backside of the panel with the help of plywood & nut bolts. The experimental result shows 15% improvement in electrical efficiency than the conventional panel.