Investigating the impact of using nano-fluid as a cooling medium on photovoltaic/thermal panel system performance

Abstract

Making use of the superior thermal properties of nanofluids is now very common, especially with regard to the cooling of photovoltaic panels to improve overall efficiency. In this work, a novel cooling system manufactured from 3 mm aluminium was attached to the rear of a monocrystalline photovoltaic module, and two volumetric concentrations of SiC/Water nanofluid were tested with different flow rates. These tests were carried out under outdoor climatic conditions in middle of Iraq at Babylon University (32.46 °N, 44.42°E) during both winter and summer. A theoretical model was thus developed in SolidWorks and simulated using ANSYS 18.2. The maximum enhancements in electrical and overall efficiency were found to be 50% and 82.41% in March with a 0.5% nanofluid concentration and 2 L/min flow rate, while the minimum enhancements were 35.4% and 34.01% in June, with a 0.1% nanofluid concentration and 0.5 L/min flow rate. The theoretical results showed good approximation to the experimental results, and the average deviation percentage of electrical efficiency for a photovoltaic/thermal system with nanofluid on 27 March was 5.58%, while on 3 June it was 11%.