Experimental Study of Photovoltaic Performance Under a Compound Parabolic Solar Concentrator with a Nanofluid Spectral Filter

Authors

O. Elharoun, Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, El-Mansoura 35516, Egypt
M. Tawfik, Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, El-Mansoura 35516, EgyptFollow
Ibrahim I. El-Sharkawy, Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, El-Mansoura 35516, Egypt
E. Zeidan, Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, El-Mansoura 35516, Egypt

Subject Area

Mechanical Power Engineering

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

The spectral splitting technique splits the sun's spectrum into two pieces to save photovoltaic cells from overheating. The first component is instantly converted into electricity, while the second is used to generate heat energy. Since nanofluid simultaneously serves as a heat transfer liquid and a spectrum splitter, several investigations have demonstrated that it is a very effective liquid-based filter. This work presents a novel PV/T design incorporating a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) and a ZnO-water nanofluid filter over the PV cell. In this work, different ZnO concentrations, such as 50, 100, 150, and 200 ppm, were tested to assess their impact on system performance. The average results were then compared to those of a reference PV cell. The results showed that the percentage reduction in PV cells' temperature rises steadily with concentration, from 9.9% at 50 ppm to 10.7% at 200 ppm. Moreover, the average enhancement percentages in electrical power and efficiency increase consistently from 88% and 89.3% to 93% and 107.5%, respectively, as the nanofluid's concentration climbs from 50 ppm to 200 ppm. In contrast, the electrical efficiency of filtered cells rises from 7.1% at 50 ppm to 7.7% at 100 ppm before falling to 6.7% and 6.2% at 150 ppm and 200 ppm, respectively. The thermal and overall efficiencies steadily rise with concentration, climbing from 27.9% and 31.7% at 50 ppm to 31.4% and 34.6% at 200 ppm, respectively.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Elharoun, O.; Tawfik, M.; El-Sharkawy, Ibrahim I.; and Zeidan, E. (2023) "Experimental Study of Photovoltaic Performance Under a Compound Parabolic Solar Concentrator with a Nanofluid Spectral Filter," Mansoura Engineering Journal: Vol. 48 : Iss. 4 , Article 2.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.58491/2735-4202.3049