Hydrogels beads for cooling solar panels: Experimental study

Abstract This paper aims to present a new and novel experimental study for the usage of hydrogel beads with different bed configurations as a cooling attachment underneath solar panel. Four different bed configurations were studied using different layers and fins arrangements then compared with the un-cooled system. The best results were obtained using 3 rows of hydrogel beads with fins where the panel temperature dropped by approximately 10 C below the un-cooled panel at 1000 W/m2 (representing around 14% temperature drop comparing to the panels’ initial temperature) leading to an increase in the electricity generation efficiency of 7.2% compared with the un-cooled system.