Photovoltaic evaporative chimney as a new alternative to enhance solar cooling

Cooling sector plays a crucial role in the World’s transition towards an efficient and decarbonised energy system. Solar cooling is an attractive idea because of the chronological coincidence between available solar radiation and cooling needs. This paper studies the possibility of increasing the ef...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Lucas Miralles, Manuel, Aguilar Valero, Francisco Javier, Ruiz Ramírez, Javier, García Cutillas, Clemente, Sánchez Kaiser, Antonio, Vicente Quiles, Pedro Ginés
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena(UPCT)
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital UPCT
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.upct.es:10317/8670
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10317/8670
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960148117302781
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Solar cooling
Solar chimney
Evaporative cooling
PV/T
Cooling Tower
HVAC
Mecánica de Fluidos
2204.04 Mecánica de Fluidos
Descripción
Sumario:Cooling sector plays a crucial role in the World’s transition towards an efficient and decarbonised energy system. Solar cooling is an attractive idea because of the chronological coincidence between available solar radiation and cooling needs. This paper studies the possibility of increasing the efficiency of solar photovoltaic modules by evaporative cooling. This, combined with the use of a water condensed chiller, will enable an efficient cooling system design as a whole. To achieve this goal this paper experimentally evaluates the thermal and electrical performance of a Photovoltaic Evaporative Chimney. A prototype with two photovoltaic modules was built; one of them is used as a reference and the other is modified in its rear side including the evaporative solar chimney. The system is able to dissipate a thermal power of about 1500 W with a thermal efficiency exceeding 30% in summer conditions. The module temperature differences reach 8 K, depending on the wind conditions and ambient air psychrometric properties. Regarding the electrical efficiency, the results showed an average improvement of 4.9% to a maximum of 7.6% around midday in a typical summer day for a Mediterranean climate.