Thermal and Electrical Management of Conventional Solar PV module Using Rectangular Aluminum Tubes Filled with Phase Change Material /

Abstract

Some of the recent challenges encountered in the research and development of the solar photovoltaic industry include a decrease in electrical output efficiency of conventional solar Photovoltaic (PV) module due to the rise in its surface temperature. The main objective of this research work is to enhance and improve the electrical output efficiency of common Silicon-based solar PV module by lowering the operating temperature of the PV module, this was accomplished by attaching hollow rectangular aluminum tubes filled with PCM to the rear surface of the solar PV panel. The proposed geometrical configuration of tubes helped to increase the PV module heat transfer rate to the surrounding air by increasing the effective heat transfer area. In this experimental study, a comparative analysis has been presented for PV modules with PCM and without PCM. Moreover, the results of this experimental study suggest the dependence of the seasonal operating conditions of the PV module upon the selection of PCM for the PV-PCM cooling system. The results getting from experiments demonstrated that the attached tubes reduced the average temperature of the PV module up to 11.24 %. The cooling effect produced due to PCM improved the open-circuit voltage up to 14.1 % and electrical output efficiency up to 5.05 % of the previous efficiency i.e. efficiency without PCM. Furthermore, the results are thoroughly compared with other published studies which revealed that the proposed configuration is cost-effective and structurally sound.