PIC 18F4550 Controlled Solar Panel Cooling System Using DC Hybrid

Aims: The purpose of this paper is to design a solar cooling system to decrease operating temperature of PV module in order to improve the efficiency of PV output power. The usage of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is a very attractive method for renewable energy. This study effort with going towards renewable energy can solve non-renewable energy issues. The efficiency of PV module is influenced by solar irradiance and ambient temperature. When temperature is increasing, output current will increase but output voltage and power will decrease and vice versa. When the solar irradiance increase, output current and power will increase with linear and output voltage will increase with marginal and vice versa. DC brushless fan and water pump (DC Hybrid cooling system) with inlet/outlet manifold are designed for constant air movement and water flow circulation at the backside and front surface of PV module. The DC hybrid cooling system with PIC controller is a solution to solve the problem of low efficiency of PV module in order to generate more electrical energy compared to PV module without cooling system.
Study Design: A solar cooling system is designed, developed and experimentally investigated.
Place and Duration of Study: Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy, University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), between November 2013 and April 2014.
Methodology: To make an effort to cool the PV module, DC brushless fan and water pump with inlet/outlet manifold are designed for constant air movement and water flow circulation at the backside and front surface of PV module. Temperature sensors were installed on the PV module to sense temperature of PV module. A microcontroller system as PIC 18F4550 was utilized to manipulate the DC hybrid (DC fans and DC water pump) for switch ON and OFF based on temperature PV module automatically. The overall performances of PV module with and without cooling system are presented during this experiment respectively.
Results: The PV module with DC hybrid cooling system increase 4.99%, 39.90%, 42.65% in term of output voltage, output current, output power and decrease 6.79 ËšC compared to PV module without DC hybrid cooling system. The efficiency of PV module with cooling system was improved as compared to PV module without cooling system, the reason being that the ambient temperature decreased considerably. This Hybrid solar cooling system by using PIC controller is an intelligent system due to fact that the PIC controller will switched ON solar cooling system when the system is necessary.
Conclusion: An increase in efficiency of PV module, investment payback period of the solar system is able to minimize along with the lifespan of PV module are also able to be prolonged. By adding PIC controller, it is able to control the power switch of cooling system automatically. Thus, the system is lead to energy saving.