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Efficient energy harvesting from PV Panel with reinforced hydrophilic nano-materials for eco-buildings

Research Authors
Ahmed Elnozahy , Heba Abd-Elbary , Farag K. Abo-Elyousr
Research Department
Research Date
Research Year
2024
Research Journal
Energy and Built Environment
Research Publisher
Elsevier
Research Vol
5
Research_Pages
393-403
Research Website
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbenv.2022.12.001
Research Abstract

The main target of this research is to allow solar PV to contribute economically to an on-grid energy-efficient building where the dust accumulation is a significant factor. Self-cleaning coatings such as hydrophobic or hydrophilic materials have recently been introduced to reduce dust deposition on building-integrated PV (BIPV) panels. The hydrophilic Nano-coated material is examined as a solution to decrease the impact of the dust on the BIPV panels and harvest more solar energy. An impartial comparison of the BIPV panels performance under natural dust conditions, manual cleaning, and hydrophilic nanomaterial coating is performed. Through an exhaustive and qualitative experimental analysis, the anti-reflection and anti-static properties of the utilized Nano-coated material are examined. The experimental results show that the hydrophilic Nano-coated material significantly improves the gathered maximum output power by 18% compared to the manually wiped panel. The calculated efficiencies of the Nano-coated, manual cleaning, and dusty panels are 11%, 9%, and 6%, respectively, which highlights the future proofing of the Nano-coated solar panel. Compared to the dusty panels, the ecological and economical results show that the BIPV carbon emissions are desirably dropped by 11% while using Nano-coated PV panels and the payback period is reduced to 3.9 years, which is approximately 12.8% faster.

Research Rank
International Journal