Year-round energy and exergy performance investigation of a photovoltaic panel coupled with metal foam/phase change material composite

Abstract

In this study, the year-round performance of a photovoltaic (PV) system coupled with phase change material/aluminum metal foam (PCM/AMF) composite as a passive cooling technique is performed based on on-site measured data. Experiments are conducted in different months of the year to compare the performance of the proposed PV-PCM/AMF system against traditional PV and PV-PCM without metal foam based on energy and exergy assessments. The findings indicated that the PV-PCM/AMF arrangement has the prospective to be used as a viable thermal regulation technology to effectively regulate the temperature of PV cells. However, it is found that the effectiveness of PCM for PV is more prominent in summer than in winter. It is observed that the composite PCM is superior to all the other tested systems and performs differently in various months of the year. The experimental results indicated that the highest temperature drop was observed in July, achieving 8.1% and 13.4% reduction in solar cell's temperature on average for PV/PCM and PV/PCM-AMF, respectively, whereas the lowest temperature drop percentage was 3.8% and 5% in November. Also, it is observed that the yearly energy and exergy efficiencies of PV-PCM/AMF system is improved by 5.05%, and 5.6%, respectively, compared to the conventional PV system. The findings of the current study emphasize the necessity of selecting the right melting temperature of PCM based on optimal year-round performance. Finally, based on our measurements and observations, it is proposed that utilizing PCM with a melting temperature somewhat lower than the one utilized in the present research (e.g. RT35) might provide higher performance in both hotter and colder months under Benha climatic conditions.