Enhancing photovoltaic systems: A comprehensive review of cooling, concentration, spectral splitting, and tracking techniques

As the demand for renewable energy sources continues to rise, the integration of solar photovoltaic technology has emerged as a promising solution. But since these panels benefit from only about 15–20% of the radiation falling on them, the current trend has been towards improving the performance of these panels and raising their efficiency to benefit from the greatest possible amount of solar radiation. In this regard, this review presents a thorough examination of the latest advancements in enhancing photovoltaic (PV) systems, with a focus on cooling techniques, concentration methods, spectral splitting filtering, and tracking systems. A comprehensive analysis of both passive and active cooling technologies was presented, where cooling improves the efficiency of the panel to up to 25%, in addition to the possibility of integrating PV modules with thermal collectors to exploit the wasted heat in what is known as Photovoltaic/thermal systems (PV/T). Additionally, the study explores various types of concentrated PV (CPV) systems, such as flat concentrators, compound parabolic concentrators, and Fresnel lenses, which can lead to 10% increase in the panel efficiency. The paper also introduces the concept of spectral splitting filtering, covering reflective and absorptive methods to optimize solar energy utilization, which is considered a new technology cooling method. Furthermore, it delves into tracking systems for PV modules which can cause an increase in efficiency about 20%. The novelty of this review lies in its up-to-date coverage of the latest research and advancements in PV system enhancement. There are several studies that deal with a specific modification to improve the performance of the PV panel, while this study provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art techniques including four different types of modern modifications and analyzes them extensively to reach the best possible configuration, as this review aims to contribute to the continued development of effective and sustainable photovoltaic systems.