Power improvement of finned solar photovoltaic phase change material system

Abstract

Fins enabled Phase Change Material (FPCM) has potential to take away the thermal energy from photovoltaic (PV) and increase the efficiency. This study analyses the PV-FPCM arrangement and presents a mathematical model. The arrangement is studied under various azimuths of wind, its flow rates, temperature of surroundings, phase change temperature and dimensions of FPCM confinement. The duration of power improvement of PV using FPCM, power production, efficiency improvement and Power-Voltage (P-V) curves are reported. The outcomes convey that as azimuth of wind changes from 75° to 0°, the duration of power improvement elevates from 6.1h to 7.3h for 5cm deep FPCM confinement. It increases from 4.9h to 5.8h for 4cm deep FPCM confinement. Moreover, decrement in wind flow rate from 6m/s to 1m/s contracts the duration of power improvement from 7.8h to 6.1h.

Experimental investigation of solar photovoltaic panel integrated with phase change material and multiple conductivity-enhancing-containers

“…For the month of June, the maximum power outputs attained by the reference and PCM cooled panels are 127.6W and 143.5W respectively. It has been observed that the power output of the PVpcm panel is higher than that of the PVref panel which can also be seen from the results of Singh et al [17]. The higher…”

“…Rezvanpour [16] showed that, with the use of PCM, the surface temperature of the PV panel can be lowered by 13.3K on an average. By adding fins inside the PCM, the surface temperature of the PV can be further lowered [17]. It was reported that for fin spacing of 12mm, there was optimum conduction/convection effect which improved the performance of PV panel [18].…”

Optimization of a novel Hybrid Wind Bio Battery Solar Photovoltaic System Integrated with Phase Change Material

“…The lower operating temperature of the solar cells increases the electrical efficiency [33,34] and prevents the degradation of the panel, which improves the overall effective life of the panel. It has been reported that PCM integration can improve the electrical efficiency of the system significantly for hot climates as compared to cold climates [35]. Experiments conducted by Japs et al [36] at the University of Paderborn show that a PV-PCM-integrated system can generate 3.05% more electricity compared to a conventional panel.…”

“…Calcium chloride hexahydrate with a melting point of around 30 • C and a latent heat capacity of 191 kJ/kg is used as the PCM, and its thermophysical properties are listed in Table 3. The mathematical model presented in the previous work [35] has been used to evaluate the performance of the PV-PCM system.…”

Solar Photovoltaic Panels with Finned Phase Change Material Heat Sinks

“…The decrease in wind speed from 6 to 0.2 m/s can decrease the duration of cooling by 3h. The insertion of fins can also decrease the cooling duration by 1.5 h [21].…”