Best compromise of net power gain in a cooled photovoltaic system

The performance of a Photo Voltaic (PV) system with cooling, in which fluid is pumped on the back of the PV modules to improve their efficiency, is analyzed in this paper. The PV system is composed of 20 modules with a global peak power of 1.6 kWp. The investigation is carried out by means of a thermal-electric-hydraulic model which includes the power losses of circulation pump. It is, thus, possible to estimate the PV net power gain, due to cell temperatures lower than in the same conditions without cooling. Furthermore, a semi-analytical approach is here used to find the best compromise, in terms of fluid flow rate, between the PV power gain and the pump consumption. Finally, the cooling system is activated or not according to the net power gain, knowing solar irradiance and ambient temperature of the site.