A review on the selection of phase change materials for photovoltaic thermal management

Abstract

Integrating the phase change materials with photovoltaic cells improve the electrical conversion efficiency by storing the heat in the form of latent heat. The crystalline silicon cells has been widely lead the photovoltaic industry but it has a high temperature coefficient from 0.4 to 0.5%/°C, so rising the temperature during peak solar irradiation can be regulated passively by integrating the phase change material (PCM). Selection of PCM based on the thermophysical properties is an important criterion to enhance the performance of photovoltaic cells. This paper mainly focuses on three criterion (i) phase transition temperature (< 45°C) (ii) latent heat (iii) thermal conductivity. The main objective of this work is to make comparative analysis to select the suitable PCM for an effective thermal management of photovoltaic.