Floating Solar PV Study on the Effect of Water Velocity and Temperature

Advancements in solar PV technology have led to the development of floating solar PV (FPV) with better energy yield. Installation of FPV can reduce the thermal loss through the passive water cooling effect from the water body. The motion of water giving a dynamic nature in FPV is crucial in thermal study. This paper provides an investigation on the effect of water movement relative to the heat transfer enhancement of FPV. Two case studies are conducted using computational fluid dynamic analysis with a finite volume approach, i.e. FPV in co-current and counter-current water flow directions. Under the assumption of a constant wind speed of 1 m/s, the water velocity and direction are varied to study the temperature effect on the FPV panel. As a result, a co-current flow of water with a velocity of 1.1 m/s is found to be the nominal point for a temperature drop of 0.68° C. This implies that a better heat transfer in co-current flow leads to an improvement in FPV performance. Conversely, the counter flow of water decreases the performance of FPV by increasing the temperature compared to stagnant water.