Optimization of solar photovoltaic system integrated with phase change material

Sourav Khanna,K.S Reddy,Tapas K Mallick

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2018.01.002

Sourav Khanna, K.S Reddy + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2018.01.002

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Abstract

The rise in the temperature of photovoltaic (PV) leads to decrease in the solar to electricity conversion efficiency. This paper presents a simulated study to investigate the thermal management of the PV panel using phase change material (PCM). It is found that once the PCM is fully melted, the rate of heat extraction by PCM decreases and, thus, the PV temperature starts increasing rapidly. In literature, the studies related to the performance analysis of the PV-PCM system are available. However, the optimization of the PCM quantity to cool the PV in various operating conditions and solar radiation levels is not available. Thus, it has been carried out in the presented work. The effects of the operating conditions (wind azimuth angle i.e. wind direction, wind velocity, melting temperature of PCM and ambient temperature) on the optimum depth of the PCM container have been analysed. The results show that as wind azimuth angle increases from 0° to 90°, the optimum depth of the PCM container (to maintain the PV at lower temperature) increases from 3.9 cm to 5.3 cm for ∑IT = 5 kWh/m2/day and from 2.4 cm to 3.2 cm for ∑IT = 3 kWh/m2/day for the chosen parameters.

Highlights

The temperature of the photovoltaic (PV) cell rises during its operation which reduces its solar to electricity conversion efficiency (Khanna et al, 2017a)
The variations in the temperature of the PVPCM system with time had been computed for various depths of the phase change material (PCM) container
The results show that the increment in the depth of the PCM container leads to increase in the cooling capacity in terms of duration

Summary

Introduction

The temperature of the photovoltaic (PV) cell rises during its operation which reduces its solar to electricity conversion efficiency (Khanna et al, 2017a). Hasan et al (2010) have analysed five different PCMs. At solar flux of 1000 W/m2 and an ambient temperature of 20 °C, a maximum reduction of 18 °C in the PV temperature has been reported. Browne et al (2015b, 2016) have used a pipe network inside the PCM container to utilize the stored heat by flowing water through the pipes which has led to a thermal efficiency of 20–25% at Dublin for three consecutive days in July having an insolation of 950 W/m2 and an ambient temperature of 20 °C around noon. Some review studies (Du et al, 2013; Browne et al, 2015a; Ma et al, 2015; Shukla et al, 2017) are reported focusing the thermal performance of the PV-PCM system

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