African solar panels are amazingly efficient. They’ve surpassed 90 percent!

Of course, this last metric does not refer to power conversion efficiency, which even in the best silicon designs typically does not exceed 30 percent. In the case of the technology developed in Africa, we are talking about an electrical efficiency of 12.11 percent, a thermal efficiency of 78.59 percent, and an overall efficiency of 90.7 percent.

Read also: Photovoltaic dust blows Beijing’s nose. A neighbor’s solar cells could handle Chinese food

A dedicated article has been published detailing the authors’ findings. e-Prime – Advances in Electrical, Electronics and Energy EngineeringAs it turns out, these innovative panels consist of a photovoltaic module, a layer of polyvinyl fluoride, two transparent layers of ethylene vinyl acetate, and a glass cover plate.

The heat exchanger appears to be an important component in creating this alternative. Channel box. Thanks to it, convective heat exchange is improved, so that the entire surface of the plate is in direct contact with the coolant. This aluminum exchanger consists of 94 channels connected to the unit itself.

Solar panels designed by Moroccan scientists use water as coolant

One result of this approach is the solution to the problem of uneven temperatures in individual parts of the panels. Until now, this has had a negative impact on their durability, but thanks to recent developments, the situation may change dramatically. The research team members distinguish two separate parts that make up the exchanger.

The first consists of solid aluminum, while the second involves the flow of water inside the solid structures. In addition, the described structure includes the previously mentioned elements. Through simulations, scientists from Morocco confirmed the beneficial effect of the coolant flow rate on the overall performance.

Read also: Two components in one. Combining silicon and perovskite creates the photovoltaics of the future.

In practice, this approach means that the flow rate has a very large effect on the panel efficiency. Every 10 litres/hour increase in fluid flow reduces the solar cell temperature by about 0.885°C. This provides an increase in energy efficiency of about 0.798 watts. In addition, the overall cell efficiency increases by about 0.051% under these conditions.

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