On the efficiency of cooled solar panels

Abstract

The photovoltaic (PV) solar panels are getting bigger applications in the practice. Their efficiency is
better at lower temperatures. Normally the panels are cooled with the ambient air (in this case the gained
heat is dissipated to the surrounding without any application). A successful combination of photovoltaic
solar panel and solar collector is the so called photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) solar panel. There are some
significant advantages of the PV/T panels – aesthetic advantage over the PV panels, usage in places
where the area is limited, reduction of the installation costs and architectural unity between roof and PV/T
panels. The article analyses two solar panels – the PV solar panel of the type polycrystalline silicon (pc-
Si) and the PV/T Solar Module CPVT60P250 (both solar panels are produced by the Crane Company
using silicone cells from EKS – Solaris GmbH). Some tests are implemented and a comparison between
the efficiencies of both panels is done.