Initial Concept for Increasing Polycrystalline Fixed Solar Panel Efficiency with Water Treatments

Fossil energy has an impact on environmental pollution, will be replaced by renewable energy. One of renewable energy is solar energy. Solar panel is a device that can convert sunlight into electricity. However, there is a factor such as temperature that can reduce the efficiency of solar panel. Therefore, this paper shows initial concept used to cool solar panel polycrystalline that have dimension 1480 mm × 680 mm × 35 mm with water treatments method that is drain water on top of polycrystalline solar panel with water pump, put the solar panel on top of a water tank, and combination of the two methods, so that solar panel temperature and ambient temperature below the solar panel are cooler. Efficiency improvement of polycrystalline solar panel occurs, while given water treatments method. However, the initial efficiency of solar panels is 11.9%. The time needed to decreasing the temperature the solar panel from 74.53°C to 25.1°C is 11.39 minutes with a water flow rate of 70 liters/min. Thus, the minimum water in a water tank is 70 liters. The water pump consumes 9.49 WattHour energy. So that the total solar energy starting at 08.00 AM - 11.00 AM after the pump is used is 345.1 WattHour from a total of 354.59 WattHour.