Contribution to airflow effect investigation over photovoltaic surfaces: Temperature and velocity contours

In this paper, the effect of wind airflow over a monocrystalline photovoltaic panel (PV) was examined in relation to general velocity and temperature contours. The analysis was obtained using the developed numerical CFD model that was validated by available experimental results. The airflow velocity ranged from 0.5 m/s up to 4.0 m/s and the gained results are specified for different longitudinal cross-sections of the PV panel. The obtained results gave detailed insight into velocity profiles and temperature stratification over the PV panel surface, where specific discovered effects were addressed. The provided research results in this paper are important for the development of a novel or improved existing cooling techniques for PV panels where the final effect is a targeted increase in average PV panel efficiency.