Thermal analysis and efficiency enhancement of solar modified PV panels through organic PCM under climate conditions of Pakistan

Abstract

Passive cooling of photovoltaics (PV) using phase change materials (PCM) may be extremely effective owing to their enormous implicit specific heat. However, the low rate of heat transfer, high solar radiation, and ambient temperature drop its efficiency by 0.45%/ᵒC. Only such a small fraction of solar irradiance is turned into electrical energy by PV cells; most of the irradiation is transformed into heat; hence, cells start operating above ambient temperature. Therefore, the exterior heat of photovoltaic panels is controlled by applying artificial cooling to enhance their efficiency. The current research aims on the significant benefits of using PCM to reduce panel surface temperature in terms of boosting energy efficiency and maintaining thermal comfort. This study demonstrates a successful design of PV controlled-temperature module using phase change materials for hot climate, especially for south Asian regions. The surface temperature of solar panels has been reduced using computational analysis and experimental study on paraffin wax. In this work, Paraffin wax used, which reduced the panel surface temperature by 5-7ᵒC, generating a 29% increase of the modified PV panel relative efficiency compared to its standard value.