Performance Improvement of Solar Photo-Voltaic Panel with Various Types of Reflectors

This paper deals the effects of a number of flat reflectors on the performance of a solar panel. A novel attempt is made to assess the photovoltaic solar module performance using I-V and P-V characteristics, open circuit voltage, short circuit current; voltage, current and maximum power with different types of reflectors and different positions of reflector namely position 1 (single side arrangement), position 2 (opposite side), position 3 (three side) and position 4 (all sides) . The reflectors are used to increase the solar irradiation that the solar PV modules are exposed and hence increase the generation of electric power. In this study, reflector materials are taken as aluminum foil, white surface paper reflectors and light blue surface paper reflectors. The performances with these are compared with the clean panel. The results show that there is significant augmentation of power with reflectors. Further, it is observed that aluminum foil increases the maximum power approximately double as compared to clean panel with reflector position 4.