Comparative study for photovoltaic cooling using metal mesh inserted eutectic phase change material enclosure

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Phase change material (PCM) is a predominant storage material that enables a higher cooling effect over sensible heat storage materials without the assistance of working fluid. In this study, novel PCM infused finned, and mesh finned containers are developed to help cooling photovoltaic (PV) in operation by reducing the PCM conduction resistance. The designed container is integrated underneath the back surface of the PV module and experimented under controlled weather conditions (indoor). Fins are attached behind the PCM container without any intermediate layer favors transferring the heat from the top to the bottom fin surface as a single unit. The main benefit of a PCM-infused fin container enhances the PCM liquid flow movement throughout the finned morphology and the heat dissipation rate increases between the finned PCM container and its surroundings. Moreover, incorporating metal mesh inside the PCM container resulting to the control of the conduction barrier and increased the heat transfer rate. It is found that metal mesh based finned PCM container shows an excellent performance enhancement between 85th and 150th minutes with a peak cooling of 2.20% and corresponding to the electrical power and energy productions of 2.01% and 2.71%, respectively compared to finned PCM container. The statistical approach on finned and mesh finned PCM containers shows that ambient temperature has a strong positive correlation with the temperature rise in photovoltaic resulting in performance degradation. Furthermore, it is recommended that the developed PCM containers are suitable for tropical climatic conditions to improve the PV power output.