Cooling solar panels

[gizmoguy]

Hey all,

I saw a recent post from someone asking whether cooling their panels with water would improve performance and provide hot water at the same time and the consensus was that the panels would get too hot to dual function.

Got me thinking though about my ram pump.  I have a small (530 watt) solar array and a spring fed (around 60 degrees f) creek with a ram pump.  The ram pump delivers water to a 165 gallon storage system 50 feet uphill from the pump for a gravity fed irrigation system for my greenhouse.  The ram pump pumps about 1 GPM.

If I line the back of the panels with aluminum flashing and pump through coils placed on the back flashing before sending the water up to the tank, would it:

1.  Increase power output in a measurable way?

2.  Increase lifespan of said panels?

I don't care what temperature water is delivered to the greenhouse since warm water does not seem to hurt the plants.

Thanks for your brainstorming, thoughts, concerns, wisdom, whatever you care to impart.

Gizmoguy

[DamonHD]

This combination is called "PV/T" (PV/Thermal) and already exists commercially, eg the "Zen" "PV/Twin".

Your panels may not enjoy the non-uniform cooling and in particular I suspect solar cells are (a) brittle (b) poor thermal conductors and thus would suffer significant temperature gradients and thus mechanical strain and (c) sensitive to vibration from water being pumped around.

*I* wouldn't do it for panels that hadn't been designed and tested for it, but then I'm a coward.

Rgds

Damon

[chainsaw]

A few years ago when I installed an eight panel pole mount array, I experimented with spraying water on the panels from a gravity  water system. I cannot remember how much the wattage went up when the panels were cooled (but it did go up of course). I was going to put a piece of pvc pipe across the top with small holes for the water to trickle out. Never gave any thought to collecting the water but it would be no trouble with a small gutter at the bottom.

Never did follow up on this project because of adding more panels. Where you have free water (no pump expense) it would be something to consider.