Thermal management of solar photovoltaic module to enhance output performance: an experimental passive cooling approach using discontinuous aluminum heat sink

Abstract

The linear variation of photovoltaic cells with its temperature could affect the performance of the module and also damage the PV material. In order to address this important issue, this study proposed a passive cooling mechanism using designed aluminum sheets mounted at the rear side of the PV module. According to results, the average temperature for the cooled panel during the entire experimental period is 41.09 ?, whereas that of the referenced panel recorded 51.08 ?. This represent a temperature reduction of 10 ?. The temperature reduction led to an improvement in the efficiency of the PV module by 4%. The average output power for the cooled module is 12.19 W, whiles that of the referenced module is 11.14 W. This translate to an improvement of 9.43% in the power output of the cooled module. The average exergy efficiency for the cooled module is 7.55% against 5.55% for the referenced module. The results also revealed that the cooled panel which incurred an additional investment cost due to the integration of the heat sink still recorded a relatively lower cost, i.e., 0.42 $/kWh, as against 0.45 $/kWh for the referenced panel. In effect, the proposed mechanism proved to be effective, it did not come with extra cost for the power generation, it rather reduced slightly the cost of energy of the power plant.