Effect of cooling method on the performance of PV/Trombe wall: Experimental assessment

Abstract

The Photovoltaic Trombe wall (PV/TW) is one of the systems that integrate PV modules with the walls of buildings to obtain a multi-purpose solar system. The objective of the current article is to study the influence of the cooling method of the PV module on the performance of the PV/TW system. Four operating cases of PV module cooling were tested: without cooling, air cooling, water cooling, and combined air and water cooling. Two experimental systems were built to investigate and demonstrate the actual effect of the cooling method on the performance of the PV/TW.The highest daily thermal efficiency was 39.81% for the system that uses water only for cooling. While the highest daily electrical efficiency was about 11.69% for the system that uses air and water together to cool the PV module. The overall efficiency was the highest for the water-cooled model only, and it recorded a daily efficiency rate of 51.40%. Finally, the results showed that cooling the module by placing a heat exchanger behind the PV module in the PV/TW system was more effective than other similar systems.