top of page
Solar Panel Senior Capstone (Spring 2022)
For my Certificate in Energy and the Environment capstone, I worked with six other engineers to design and test a cooling system for solar panels to improve their efficiency and use the captured excess heat to support an HVAC system.
For this project, I was responsible for creating the CAD of our system and running flow simulations to understand the system performance under different sun, wind, and fan conditions. The simulations were also compared to experimental data.
In addition to performing simulations, I completed a literature review on similar solar systems with integrated cooling systems.
To see the complete design process and capstone project, see our full report.
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: About
Final Prototype
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Image
The team’s approach was to integrate heat pipes onto a given solar panel, where the evaporator end was aligned with the underside of the solar panel, and the condenser end was inserted into a PVC pipe so that the heat from the panel could be transferred to a working fluid, such as water or air, in the PVC pipe.
After experimenting with the heat pipes themselves and the solar panel, an integrated design was built and tested in laboratory conditions to evaluate the feasibility of such a photovoltaic-thermal energy system.
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Text
Front View of Model System
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Image
For this project, I modeled a solar panel in SolidWorks to simulate our lab based experiments and test our system under conditions more similar to our target of Hawaii that would be difficult to replicate in their lab setting. Solar radiation at 1000 W/m2 was added to the model, which is the standard used to test panels. 22 heat pipes were incorporated on the back of the panel that were designed based on the manufacturer’s specifications and set the environmental temperature at 300 K.
To match our lab testing, I added a PVC pipe to the model. This pipe contained a fan that would cool one end of the pipes to remove heat from the panels.
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Text
Back View of Model System
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Image
These simulations were run at a mesh of five (meshes in SolidWorks Flow Simulation range from one to seven, with one being the least dense and seven being the most dense). The higher the mesh, the finer the minimum unit of analysis. Future analysis could investigate the impact of increasing the mesh further and adjusting the mesh so that it is finer around the narrow heat pipes. This may reveal more significant temperature differences between the systems with forced and free convection.
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Text
System with Natural Convection
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Image
System with Forced Convection
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Image
The figures above illustrate that there is less than a 1oC temperature difference between the simulation with forced and natural convection. The same fan was used for all simulations, but the air speed for this simulation was lower, with an average air speed of approximately 3 m/s. Additionally, this configuration yielded a higher temperature output, with the air heated by approximately 5 oC.
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Text
Average Fan Velocity of 3 m/s
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Image
Air Temperature Increase of 5 Celsius
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Image
While relevant data was collected from experimentation and modeling, the subsequent analysis yielded inconclusive results and showed that the proposed design transferred an insufficient amount of heat to be economically viable.
This technology would be feasible in areas of high insolation, interest, and where requirements drive a need for photovoltaic-thermal systems.
Solar Panel Senior Capstone: Text
bottom of page