TY - JOUR
T1 - Role of phase change materials thickness for photovoltaic thermal management
AU - Naseer, Ammar
AU - Jamil, Furqan
AU - Ali, Hafiz Muhammad
AU - Ejaz, Ali
AU - Khushnood, Shahab
AU - Ambreen, Tehmina
AU - Khan, Muhammad Sajid
AU - Bashir, Muhammad Ansar
AU - Pao, William
AU - Yan, Wei Mon
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - The efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) panels plummet due to its escalating surface or operating temperature. Knowing this fact, the thermal regulation of PV panels is inevitable. Passive cooling techniques i.e. using phase change material (PCM) has gained attention in recent years for thermal regulation of PV panels. The present study investigates the performance of PV panels by varying thickness of hybrid PCMs in the climate of Taxila, Pakistan. The two PCMs having various melting points, kept apart by an aluminum plate were placed on rear side of PV module. The performance of three different configurations (B, C, D) of PV panels containing various thickness of hybrid PCMs was measured with respect to configuration A which was subjected to natural cooling. The PV panel configuration that has more amount of low melting point PCM as compared to other PCM showed better performance. It was witnessed that average reduction in temperature for configurations ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ were 4.9 °C, 6.5 °C and 8.1 °C respectively in comparison to configuration “A”. Also, increment of electrical efficiency for these three configurations were observed as 5.0%, 6.1% and 7.8% respectively due to enhancement in electrical power of PV panels. The configuration “D” having highest thickness of low melting PCM indicated best results in the sense of electrical power and electrical efficiency as compared to the other two configurations B and C having high melting PCMs.
AB - The efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) panels plummet due to its escalating surface or operating temperature. Knowing this fact, the thermal regulation of PV panels is inevitable. Passive cooling techniques i.e. using phase change material (PCM) has gained attention in recent years for thermal regulation of PV panels. The present study investigates the performance of PV panels by varying thickness of hybrid PCMs in the climate of Taxila, Pakistan. The two PCMs having various melting points, kept apart by an aluminum plate were placed on rear side of PV module. The performance of three different configurations (B, C, D) of PV panels containing various thickness of hybrid PCMs was measured with respect to configuration A which was subjected to natural cooling. The PV panel configuration that has more amount of low melting point PCM as compared to other PCM showed better performance. It was witnessed that average reduction in temperature for configurations ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ were 4.9 °C, 6.5 °C and 8.1 °C respectively in comparison to configuration “A”. Also, increment of electrical efficiency for these three configurations were observed as 5.0%, 6.1% and 7.8% respectively due to enhancement in electrical power of PV panels. The configuration “D” having highest thickness of low melting PCM indicated best results in the sense of electrical power and electrical efficiency as compared to the other two configurations B and C having high melting PCMs.
KW - Efficiency enhancement
KW - Phase-change material
KW - Photovoltaics
KW - Temperature regulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119590210&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.seta.2021.101719
DO - 10.1016/j.seta.2021.101719
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85119590210
SN - 2213-1388
VL - 49
JO - Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments
JF - Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments
M1 - 101719
ER -