Investigation of Solar Energy Production by Photovoltaic (PV) System Using Rooftop Coating as Passive Cooling Technique at Bukit Tinggi, Malaysia

Abstract

Solar power energy is known as one of the popular renewable energies that has been studied by many researchers all over the world. Photovoltaic (PV) panels are used to produce electricity directly from the sunlight. Cooling is a very important technique used in the PV system industry. This is because the heat generated by the PV system can reduce its performance, resulting in higher costs. The cooling technique consists of two types: active cooling technique and passive cooling technique. In this investigation, the passive cooling technique is selected. This is due to its advantages such as less maintenance, did not require large space and affordable. The nanocoating method is a widely used as passive cooling method for glass and PV panels. However, this investigation is carried out to investigate the rooftop coating integrated with PV panels system at Bukit Tinggi due to the limited previous research found worldwide. M168 coating is applied to the rooftop and the effects on the PV systems have been investigated. Two sets of On-Grid Connected PV systems were set up; where each system consists of two inverters were set up to analyze the output. The results then were recorded. According to the investigation results, the PV system with a coated rooftop generates a higher voltage of 249.80V and total power production difference of 16% compared to the PV system with an uncoated rooftop. Although the temperature for coated rooftop PV system quite higher than the uncoated rooftop PV system at the beginning, then the temperature constantly lower than the uncoated rooftop PV system. This study can be used as a guideline for PV system passive cooling methods at Bukit Tinggi.