Innovative technique for achieving uniform temperatures across solar panels using heat pipes and liquid immersion cooling in the harsh climate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The present work carries about a unique experimental investigation in the thermal management and cooling realms of the Photovoltaic (PV) panels under the most harsh environmental conditions. The performance of the heat sink and thermal storage heat sink techniques were analysed amongst the three passively cooled PV panels. Moreover, the efficacy of the immersion and coolant thermal properties was evaluated and discussed for the four actively cooled Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) collectors. Even though, it was found that the heat sink-based PV panel configuration is more performant relatively compared to the PCM heat sink based-PV one since a drop of ten-degree in PV cell temperature was recorded, but still, the heat dissipation rate is not enough to withstand the severe mechanical and electrical degradation challenges under the harsh environmental climate of Saudi Arabia. For the actively cooled PVT collectors, it was found that the immersion technique protects the PV panel from the hot spot apparatuses and lead to better heat dissipation uniformity. The heat pipes based-PVT collector immersed in regular water has recorded the optimal temperature distribution and maximum temperature drop by 53% relatively compared to best passively cooled configuration. With ethylene glycol, engine oil, and active cooling without immersion, the steady-state PV temperature has been reduced relatively compared to a passively cooled PV panel by about 48%, 25%, and 21%, respectively.