Performance Enhancement of PV Solar System by

Mirror Reflection
Rizwanur Rahman
1
, and Md. Fayyaz Khan
2
Department of EEE, United International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
House#80, Road#8A, Satmasjid Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh
1
riz282000@yahoo.com
2
fyk@eee.uiu.ac.bd


Abstract In this paper, a study has been made to enhance the
performance of Solar Home System (SHS) by a very simple
method where the investment cost is negligible. Like any other
developing country of the world, most of the rural people of
Bangladesh do not receive grid power due to shortage the of
primary energy sources and the high cost involved for
transmission & distribution system. To stimulate the economic
activities among the rural population and to enhance the literacy
rate, Bangladesh government has taken up a massive plan to sell
SHS among the rural masses on a very soft loan. Although the
per unit energy cost for PV home system is quite high,
improvement in the performance of SHS will significantly reduce
the per unit energy cost of the SHS. Bangladesh receives an
average solar irradiation of 3.82-6.42kWh/m
2
and considering the
total area of Bangladesh and assuming the efficiency of solar
system to be 10%, 5.2x10
9
kWh of electricity can be generated
annually [1]. Roughly 60% population of the country do not have
access to grid electricity and are mostly dependent on bio mass to
meet their energy requirement. However, solar home system is
becoming popular day by day and even poor households are now
becoming interested to purchase solar home system due to its
various advantages. Around half a million solar home systems
have already been installed in different parts of Bangladesh and
the annual growth rate is around 5%. One of the major
limitations of the solar home system is its extremely poor
efficiency. Lot of research is going on to improve the
performance of the solar panels. Sun tracking is a method
frequently adopted for performance enhancement. However sun
tracking devices need expensive control and drive equipments
and the power for these equipments has to be provided by the
solar panel and the battery installed within the solar home
system. Due to cost and frequent maintenance requirement, such
tracking systems are not popular in Bangladesh. Even a slight
enhancement of the performance of solar cells will drastically
reduce the overall per unit energy cost of the solar home system.
In this paper, performance enhancement of solar panel by direct
reflection of light has been studied experimentally. In order to
make a comparative study, readings of the output of solar panels
were taken under three different conditions simultaneously. The
conditions are: i) panel output when the panel was inclined at
23.5
0
with the horizontal ii) panel output by tracking the sun and
iii) panel output by fixing plane mirrors at the East-West ends of
the panel edge with the panel fixed at 23.5
0
with the horizontal.
Encouraging results were obtained with such reflectors installed
with the solar panel. Results from the practical data show that
by using mirrors, an average increase of around 25% in the
short-circuit currents, as high as that of sun tracking, can be
achieved. And as a result of the reduced complexity and zero
power consumption of the mirror system, as compared to that of
sun tracking system, use of mirrors will be more economically
viable over sun tracking. Moreover, installation of mirrors is
cheap, simple and does not require any additional complicated
equipments or devices.

Keywords SHS, Mirror Reflection, Diffused Reflection,
Irradiation, Panel Specifications
I. INTRODUCTION
ILLIAM Grylls Adams and Richard Evans Day
discovered that selenium produces electricity when
exposed to light, back in 1867 [2], but the efficiency
was too small. Since then, rigorous research and experiments
are being carried out around the world for developing efficient
PV cells, but only 30% efficiency has been achieved in the
labs, while it is still as low as 15%-20% in the commercially
used PV panels.
According to the sun-earth geometry in Bangladesh, suns
inclination angle with respect to the ground surface, i.e. the
angle of incidence of the sun rays is 23.5
0
with the vertical,
and this inclination is towards the south. Thus, the solar panel
in our case was also tilted 23.5
0
with the horizontal as shown
in the diagram for receiving maximum solar energy.
As discussed earlier, Bangladesh, on an average, receives
around 3.82-6.42kWh/m
2
of solar irradiation, out of which,
around 47.3% of the energy is received at frequencies from
the visible range (0.38 < < 0.78 mm) [3].
Although a nominal solar panel cannot handle bulk of
power like running of heavy motors, Air conditions etc., but
for rural areas it can be effectively used to illuminate village
homes. Such illumination has a positive impact on the rural
economy, adult education, better health condition, etc. If
performance of such cells can be enhanced with a little
investment, then the overall power output can be enhanced
and thereby unit energy cost can be significantly reduced.
Therefore this paper focuses a very effective method for
performance enhancement of PV solar panels.



Fig. 1 Sun-Earth Geometry

W
163
6th International Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering
ICECE 2010, 18-20 December 2010, Dhaka, Bangladesh
978-1-4244-6279-7/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE
II. VARIOUS METHODS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF
PERFORMANCE OF PV SYSTEM
Nearly all systems for the performance enhancement of
solar panels involve some process for increasing the intensity
of incident light rays, which proportionally increases the
current output from the PV panel with a nominal rise in
voltage.
The voltage-current relation for a solar cell is given by the
following equation [4]:

+ 1
01
ln
I
ph
I
e
kT
OC
V (1)
V
OC
= Open circuit voltage
k = Boltzmann constant
T = Temperature of the device
e = Elemental charge
I
Ph
= Photo current
I
01
= Current due to recombination due to bulk charge
carriers

The most common method used at present, for this purpose,
is sun tracking. Another promising method that has been
introduced for improving the performance of a solar panel is
using white, diffused reflectors [5]. And this paper will be
dealing with the use of plane mirror for the enhancement of
the outputs of a solar panel.
Short overviews of the methods for performance
enhancement using sun tracking and diffused reflection are
given below:
A. Tracking the sun
Sun tracking has been the most popular method for
improving the output of solar panels, but as a matter of fact, it
has not become popular. All studies support that this is an
effective scheme for increasing the output of the PV system
by around 20% [6]. But at the same time, for its own
operation, it consumes a portion of the electrical energy
generated by the PV solar system itself. Besides, it also needs
a sophisticated mechanism and requires highly skilled service
and maintenance staff regularly. All these factors result in an
increase in the cost for setting up and maintaining the sun
tracking system.
In addition to that, if any fault or breakdown takes place in
the system situated in the outskirts or remote areas of
developing countries like Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan
etc., it becomes extremely difficult to arrange the technical
persons, etc. for the necessary repair. If the circuit develops a
fault and aligns towards west in the morning, the total output
from the panel would drop drastically, which would
unnecessarily generate alarms of Low Battery, Load
Disconnection, etc. The solar home system will then fail to
deliver even 25% of expected output at night.

B. Diffused Reflection
The diffused reflectors reflect the sun rays and spread them
almost uniformly over the panel through diffusion of the
reflected sun beam. This method is especially useful on sunny
days, since this substantially improves the performance of the
solar system, and at the same time, minimizes the risks of
heated spot formation due to the concentration of the reflected
beam over a portion of the panel only, and thus improves the
performance and also the life span of the panels. As a result of
its low costs and very light weight, it is easy to erect. Another
disadvantage of diffused reflector is that, because of its low
mechanical strength, it is subjected to damage due to gusty
winds.
III. MIRROR REFLECTION
Reflection by mirrors is the simplest form of reflection, yet,
it appears to be the most effective one. Even for the
performance enhancement of solar panels, it plays a very
promising role. First of all, the field data obtained, show that
the improvements of the output currents using plane mirror
reflectors is even higher than that of sun tracking. And
secondly, these reflectors are very cheap and are easily
available in the market.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Owing to the sun-earth geometry and the location of
Bangladesh, the solar panel was kept inclined at an angle of
23.5
0
with the horizontal. The length of the panel was aligned
along the north-south direction. The mirrors were then
attached at the two edges of the panel as shown in Fig. 2. The
orientations of the mirrors were kept in accordance with the
direction of the sun rays, so that the maximum possible
amount of light was reflected on to the panel.
The electrical specifications of the panel were as follows:

[At STC (1000W/m
2
, AM 1.5 spectrums, cell temperature
25
o
C) nominal values]

Peak Power (P
max
) : 50.0W
Voltage (V
mp
) : 17.0V
Current (I
mp
) : 2.9A
Open Circuit Voltage (V
oc
) : 21.8V
Short Circuit Current (I
sc
) : 3.3A
Max Bypass Diode : 6A
Max Series Fuse : 15A
The size of the panel used was 0.835m x 0.540m
And size of each of the mirrors was 1m0.25m
The mirrors were placed at an angle of approximately 120
o

with the panels horizontal surface. The overall experimental
setup is illustrated in Fig. 2.
Two pieces of plane mirrors were used to reflect sun-light
effectively at any time of the day. The size of each of the
mirror reflectors used was 1.0m x 0.25m.

1

Fig. 2 (1) Experimental Setup with mirror, (2) Pyranometer, (3) Ammeter, (4)
Voltmeter

164
V. RESULTS
The experiments for this paper were carried out under bright
and sunny weather. The data, thus obtained, are graphically
summarized and illustrated below in Fig. 3, 4 and 5
respectively.
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Time(24Hrs)
I
s
c
(
A
m
p
s
)
Fixed
Mirror
Tracking

Fig. 3 Hourly variation of solar panel short circuit current under three
different conditions. a) Panel fixed at 23.5
0
with the horizontal (
*
), b)
tracking the panel with the sun (), c) Reflecting the sun beam on the panel
by mirror ()
8 10 12 14 16 18 20
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Time(24 Hrs)
I
r
r
a
d
i
a
t
i
o
n
(
w
/
m
2
)
Irradiation

Fig. 4 Solar Irradiation vs. Time measured by pyranometer on the day of the
experiment.

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Time(24Hrs)
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

I
m
p
r
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

(
%
)
Mirror
Tracking

Fig. 5 Percentage improvement of ISC of the PV panel with mirror reflection
on panel and with sun tracking respectively.
It can be seen from the graphs of Fig. 3 and Fig. 5
respectively that the I
SC
obtained by using plane mirror is
much higher than the I
SC
using sun tracking, during the mid
day. Even during the remaining hours, the enhancement in
output of the panel with mirror is quite close to that of sun
tracking. In case of an average sunny day, the percentage
improvement with mirror is about 30% higher than that of sun
tracking during the mid hours of the day.
VI. COMMENTS ON THE RESULTS
It can easily be inferred from the curves in Fig. 3 that for
any given time of the day, the value of I
SC
with the mirror is
greater than the I
SC
without mirrors. Yet, the main
improvement with mirror takes place during the mid day,
when the I
SC
with the mirrors exceeds the I
SC
with sun
tracking over a wide margin. This takes place roughly from
11am till 3pm, i.e. around 4hours. In fact, this is usually the
portion of the day when we receive the solar energy at the
maximum rate. Thus, a substantial improvement during this
portion of the day is more advantageous than early morning or
late afternoon. During this period, the average increase in the
short circuit current was around 20% above sun tracking and
more than 25% above that of fixed panel without using
mirrors.
Besides, in the experimental setup, the size of the mirrors
was chosen based on calculation to cover 70% of the panel
area during major portion of the day. However, a critical study
to optimize the mirror size would have yielded a better output
from the panel. In such cases, it is expected to obtain further
5-10% enhancement in the performance of the PV solar
systems.
Another point that may be mentioned regarding the
experimental readings is that the readings under different
methods were noted with a time gap of less than half a minute,
and during this transition period, the pyranometer reading
remained fairly constant, which implies that there was almost
no change in the solar irradiation during that transition period.
VII. CONCLUSION
The results obtained from this study on the use of plane
mirrors for the performance enhancement of solar panels have
come out to be highly encouraging. And the plane mirrors
used for this purpose are very cheap and easily available. This
makes the use of solar energy more viable for the developing
countries of the world, reducing the overall cost of producing
energy by Solar Home System. Also, such system is cheap
and easy to install.
Since the average power output during the mid day has
increased substantially using mirrors, the solar panels
equipped with such mirrors can also be utilized for
loads/equipments requiring higher power inputs during that
period of the day. Running water pumps for irrigation may be
one of the examples of such loads.
These reflectors can be setup on very light and simple
structures. Even wood or bamboo would be strong enough for
this purpose for such installation.
Although better performance can be achieved, however two
shortcomings are worth mentioning with possible solutions:
i) There may be formations of heated spots on the PV
panel due to non uniform distribution of light on its
surface. This can be overcome by keeping the size of the
mirror a little bigger than the panel and setting and
165
maintaining it carefully to ensure uniform distribution of
reflected light.
ii) Due to large surface area, strong winds may cause the
reflectors to become unstable. This can also be
overcome by setting strips of mirrors in the form of
louvers at the edge of the panels.
The only maintenance required is that the mirrors have to be
cleaned regularly and the mirrors need to be set properly so
that the reflected beam is distributed over the whole of the
panel for giving optimum performance.
REFERENCE
[1] Alam Hossain Mondol, Centre for development research (ZEF),
University of Bonn, Germany, Opportunities to use renewable energy
technology in rural Bangladesh, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology,
Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 2003
[2] The history of Solar Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy, U.S. Department of Energy.
[3] M. Imtiaz Hassan, Solar radiation in Bangladesh, Photovoltaic
technology for Bangladesh, pp. 46-47. Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology,
Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 2003
[4] Introduction to PV Technology, Photovoltaic Technology for
Bangladesh, pp. 62-63. Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Dhaka,
Bangladesh, March 2003
[5] Rizwan ur Rahman, Dewan Ishtiaque Ahmed, Mufrad Ahmed Fahmi,
Tithi Tasnuva, Md. Fayyaz Khan, Performance Enhancement of PV
Solar System by Diffused Reflection, in 1
st
International Conference
on the Developments in Renewable Energy Technology (ICDRET 2009),
pp. 96-99, Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 17-19, 2009, ISBN 978-984-
33-0616-6
[6] Ali Al-Mohamad, Efficiency improvements of photo-voltaic panels
using a Sun-tracking system, Atomic Energy Commission of Syria

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