Thermal Management of Photovoltaics using Porous Nanochannels

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that integrating porous nanochannels for thermal management significantly cools PV panels, boosting electrical output by about 33% and providing a predictive model for cooling performance.

Contribution

The paper introduces a numerical approach to evaluate porous nanochannels for PV cooling, showing substantial temperature reduction and efficiency improvement, with a universal predictive curve for thermal management.

Findings

PV surface temperature reduced by 31.5°C on average

Electrical power output increased by approximately 33%

Response time to temperature changes decreased to one-eighth

Abstract

The photoelectric conversion efficiency of a solar cell is dependent on its temperature. When the solar radiation is incident on the photovoltaics (PV) panel, a large portion of it is absorbed by the underlying material which increases its internal energy leading to the generation of heat. An overheated PV panel results in a decline in its performance which calls for an efficient cooling mechanism that can offer an optimum output of the electrical power. In the present numerical work, thermal management with a porous nanochannels device capable to dissipate high heat flux is employed to regulate the temperature of a commercial PV panel by integrating the device on the back face of the panel. The spatial and temporal variation of the PV surface temperature is obtained by solving the energy balance equation numerically. By evaluating the steady-state PV surface temperature with and without thermal management, the extent of cooling and the resulting enhancement in the electrical power output is studied in detail. The nanochannels device is found to reduce the PV surface temperature significantly with an average cooling of 31.5 oC. Additionally, the enhancement in the electrical power output by ~33% and the reduction in the response time to 1/8th highlight the potential of using porous nanochannels as a thermal management device. Furthermore, the numerical method is used to develop a universal curve which can predict the extent of PV cooling for any generic thermal management device.