Currently, the most developed new energy source is solar energy. Because solar power is installed outside, it is exposed to many pollutants. Pollutants are causing the characteristics of solar energy to deteriorate. Therefore, this study aims to develop a water-repellent coating to prevent contamination of solar modules. Silica and Titania materials are mainly used as water-repellent coating materials. In this study, it was based on silica and the contact angle characteristics were measured according to the change in the amount of silica and ammonia water added and the number of coatings. As a result of the measurement, it was confirmed that the contact angle was more than 60 degrees when 0.5 mol of TEOS was added to 50 mL and 0.15 M when 1 mL of ammonia water was added to 296.47 ml of distilled water. And it was confirmed that the contact angle improved when the number of coatings was applied twice. A water-repellent coating material was applied to low iron tempered glass used to protect dye-sensitized solar cell modules. The characteristics of the module were measured after spraying DI-Water on low-emission tempered glass with a water-repellent coating. As a result of the measurement, the efficiency of the module without application, the efficiency of the module coated once, and the module coated twice were 4.87%, 4.90%, and 4.91%, respectively. It was confirmed that the efficiency of the module increased by applying water-repellent coating. As a result of this study, it is determined that the water-repellent coating material will help improve solar power generation efficiency and lifespan by being self-cleaning and non-reflective.
In this work, we conducted a study on cell strings of high efficiency and high power solar cell modules via simulation. In contrast to the conventional module manufacturing method, the simulation was performed by connecting cutting cells divided into four parts from 6-in size using the electrically conductive adhesive (ECA). The resistance of the ECA added in series connection was extracted using an experimental method. This resistance was found to be 3 mΩ. Based on this simulation, we verified the change in efficiency of the string as a function of the number of cutting cell connections. Consequently, the cutting cell efficiency of the first 20.08% was significantly increased to 20.63% until the fifth connection; however, for further connections, it was confirmed that the efficiency was saturated to 20.8%. Connecting cutting cells using ECA improves the efficiency of the string; therefore, it is expected that it will be possible to fabricate modules with high efficiency and high power.
In this paper, the effects of environmental variables on the output of the floating photovoltaic water systems, which were installed at the Hapcheon dam in South Korea, were investigated, and the correlations between them were analyzed. The system output was linearly proportional to the solar radiation or irradiance. The output was large in spring and autumn because of high irradiance, but low in the summer when the solar module temperature was high. The influence of the module temperature on the system output was limited in the summer, during which the module temperature change affected the system output more than the change of the irradiance did. In addition, in winter and summer, the module temperature tended to decrease with increasing windspeed, but windspeed did not affect module temperature significantly in the spring and autumn. On the other hand, in winter and spring, the irradiance decreased as the windspeed increased because of movement (or circulation) of the photovoltaic modules.