Concept Paper
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Panel Surface Area Maximization for Increasing PV Performance
Version 1
: Received: 20 May 2024 / Approved: 20 May 2024 / Online: 21 May 2024 (03:42:02 CEST)
How to cite: Okello, M. O. Panel Surface Area Maximization for Increasing PV Performance. Preprints 2024, 2024051294. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.1294.v1 Okello, M. O. Panel Surface Area Maximization for Increasing PV Performance. Preprints 2024, 2024051294. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.1294.v1
Abstract
Solar energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources for many settings, such as households, solar-powered vehicles, power grid support, etc. However, the amount of solar energy produced is directly proportional to the surface area of the solar panel exposed to the sun rays, and so the challenges arise for the space required to install solar panels in order to get maximum area coverage of sun radiation energy absorption in constricted spaces such as vehicles powered by solar, small residential apartments, etc. The challenge with solar energy is that once a plate is installed, the space under it or above it cannot be used for another solar panel installation. This is due to the fact that the shadow cast by the above solar panel or structure prevents sun rays from reaching the below solar panel. The introduction of flexible solar panels that can take on any shape has given us the opportunity to explore the possibility of maximising solar plate surface area using surface manifold techniques. In this optimisation study, the constraint is that we have a space with fixed dimensions of length, width, and height, and the objective is to maximise the surface area of the panel within the given space dimensions to maximise solar energy absorption. Thus, this paper then proposes curving the panel surface and/or protruding the surfaces of the panel using the concept of a topology surface manifold to maximise the surface area: Protruding panel surface with shapes such as pyramidal, cone, hemisphere, sinusoidal wavy curve, etc. are analysed to check if the panel surface increases at all. The geometrical design result shows that the panel surface can increase by more than 20%. Although this paper only presents concept work and details of experimental design are yet to be performed, it should also be noted that curving surfaces have drawbacks, such as some protruding parts of solar panels when the plate is tilted, not facing the sun directly, which may cast shadows on parts of the solar panel, causing hindrance.
Keywords
solar energy; surface manifold; topology optimization
Subject
Computer Science and Mathematics, Geometry and Topology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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