Ali Canbaz, Yakup Karakoyun, Hasan Uzmus
Canal-mounted photovoltaic (CM-PV) panel solutions minimize canal evaporation and panel operating temperature to improve performance. This research examines how flow rate affects CM-PV panel energy output and water savings. No experimental investigations have examined the flow rate impact in CM-PV systems under real operating conditions. In the experimental study conducted in this direction, two canal structures were simulated with different flow velocities, and two separate scenarios were created. The first scenario employed one pump in one canal and two pumps in the other to produce a flow differential. In the second scenario, one pump was utilized in one canal and three in the other canal to increase the flow differential. The experimental data obtained indicate a direct proportional relationship between the number of pumps and the amount of evaporation; indeed, in the first scenario, there was a difference of 2 L in evaporation between the canals, whereas in the second scenario, this difference was 4 L. These results confirm the assumption that the amount of evaporation increases as the flow rate increases. An increase in the amount of evaporation indirectly increased the panel efficiency. In the case of electricity generation, the maximum and average power differences between the panels were 16.6 W and 9.16 W, respectively. For the second scenario in the power parameters, a maximum difference of 22.9 W and an average difference of 14 W were determined. Efficiency differences varied between scenarios; in the first scenario, the maximum efficiency was 0.9% and the average efficiency was 0.6%, while in the second scenario, these values were 1.3% and 0.8%, respectively.