4E analysis of a new design heat sink for cooling a bifacial photovoltaic system using PCM and ribs

Abstract

PV cell cooling is essential to prevent it from overheating and save its electrical efficiency from decreasing. In addition, the bifacial PV cell is more suited for small-area applications. However, there is a big challenge in cooling the bifacial PV cell surface due to the bifacial PV collects solar radiation from both the top and bottom sides. Therefore, a new heat sink of the bifacial PV system is numerically and experimentally studied. The proposed bifacial system consisted of 2 mono-facial PV cells, phase change material (PCM), and 2 aluminum plates. The PCM (paraffin wax) and the proposed arrangement of 8 ribs in the aluminum plates are used to decrease the cell temperature and improve the electrical performance of the system. The ribbed case (2PV-PCM-ribs) is compared to the smooth case (2PV-PCM-smooth) to detect the enhancement due to the ribs. The energy, exergy, economic, and enviro-economic (4E) analysis is established between the 2PV-PCM-ribs system and the bifacial system (without cooling). The outcomes explained that the electrical efficiency and the output power per unit area of the 2PV-PCM-ribs system are higher than the bifacial system (without cooling) by a significant value. The highest difference value in electrical efficiency and output power are 1.6 %, and 27.21 W/m2, respectively, which occurred at 195 min. The electricity generation cost for the 2PV-PCM-ribs is 0.07679, 0.077932, and 0.092782 $/kWh, at a lifetime of 10, 15, and 20 years, respectively, compared to 0.07717, 0.78322, and 0.93246 $/kWh, in the bifacial system (without cooling).