Performance evaluation of fixed and sun-tracking photovoltaic systems integrated with spray cooling

Maximizing the energy gained from photovoltaics (PVs) is a challenge to widespread their applicability. Applying a tracking system can maximize the received solar radiation and, subsequently, the output energy. Unfortunately, the higher the received radiation, the warmer the PV surface. Excessive temperature, or even rise, can badly affect the PVs, degrading both output energy and lifetime. Therefore, enhancing the performance necessitates thermal management. Hence, the current research aimed to merge two approaches: using a tracking system to maximize received energy and incorporating a surface cooling technique. Various PV configurations were compared: conventional fixed, fixed with cooling, single-axis tracking (SAT) with cooling, and double-axis tracking (DAT) with cooling configurations. In the cases of cooled PVs, spray cooling was applied to the upper panel's surface. The findings showed that tracking systems improved the capture of energy; when SAT and DAT systems were compared to fixed panels, the input power increased by 15.18% and 16.2%, respectively. The surface temperatures of tracking systems were nearly similar to those of cooled fixed panels while absorbing greater solar energy. Moreover, the greatest power generation enhancement was achieved with tracking systems, particularly DAT, which showed a 26.1% increase in power output. The DAT-based PV had the highest peak efficiency of 14%.