Heat Pipe-Based Cooling Enhancement for Photovoltaic Modules: Experimental and Numerical Investigation

Abstract

High temperatures in photovoltaic (PV) modules lead to the degradation of electrical efficiency. To address the challenge of reducing the temperature of photovoltaic modules and enhancing their electrical power output efficiency, a simple but efficient photovoltaic cooling system based on heat pipes (PV-HP) is introduced in this study. Through experimental and numerical investigations, this study delves into the temperature characteristics and power output performance of the PV-HP system. Orthogonal tests are conducted to discern the influence of different factors on the PV-HP system. The experimental findings indicate that the performance of the PV-HP system is superior to that of the single system without heat pipes. The numerical simulation shows the effects of system structural parameters (number of heat pipes, angle of heat pipe condensation section) on system temperature and power output performance. The numerical simulation results show that increasing the angle of the heat pipe condensation section and the number of heat pipes leads to a significant drop in system temperature and an increase in the efficiency of the photovoltaic cells.