Experimental and numerical investigation of spray cooling based photovoltaic/thermal system: Achieving high performance, low cost, and lightweight design

Abstract

In an age where the world faces increasing energy demands and environmental concerns, efficient and sustainable renewable energy solutions are imperative. This study investigates spray cooling as a promising approach to address conventional PV/T limitations in thermal management, reliability, and cost. Experimental and numerical analyses under realistic conditions demonstrate that the spray-cooled PV/T can achieve over 9 % power improvement versus PV, while reducing PV surface temperatures from 35 °C to 23.1 °C even under winter operation. Critically, spray cooling eliminates localized high-stress regions observed in conventional water-cooled PV/T (maximum stress: 106 MPa; deformation: 26 mm), ensuring structural integrity during prolonged operation. Economically, the spray cooling PV/T reduces the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) compared to conventional PV/T under the different discount rates and O&M costs, with annual savings of 16.04 billion USD (1.5‱ of global GDP) through reduced installed capacity and optimized thermal energy recovery. Environmentally, it achieves reductions in water consumption (1.4‱ of global freshwater usage), land use (0.07‱ of non-arable area), and manufacturing-related greenhouse gas emissions (0.4‱ of global totals). By integrating lightweight design, efficient heat dissipation, and low-cost investigation, this work establishes spray cooling as a scalable pathway to enable widespread adoption of PV/T systems.