A novel thermal regulation of photovoltaic panels through phase change materials with metallic foam-based system and a concise comparison: An experimental study

Abstract The thermal regulation of photovoltaic (PV) modules is utmost necessary as temperature enhancement of PV panels deteriorates its conversion efficiency. Different studies have been done in the literature to regulate the temperature of module by using various fluids and materials which include air, water, nanofluids as well as phase change material (PCM). The current research studies four various types of PV configurations with the aim of enhancement in cell efficiency. These four configurations include reference panel, PV panel having only PCM, PV panel having PCM with foam of thickness 8 mm and PV panel having PCM along foam with 12 mm thickness. This is the novelty of the current research that PCM with foam have not studied yet in photovoltaic cooling. The PT58 and RT44 were used as phase change materials along with aluminum foam having 8 mm and 12 mm thickness. The experimentation was done under the environment of Taxila, Pakistan during the month of February. The maximum efficiency of PV module is found by the configuration having PCM with foam of 12 mm thickness. The result of experimentation depicts that reduction in maximum temperature by using RT44 along with foam was 11.21 °C for PV panel having only PCM, 20.95 °C for PV panel having PCM with foam of thickness 8 mm and 24.39 °C for PV panel having PCM along foam with 12 mm thickness with highest conversion efficiency 11.68 % , 11.79 % , 12.06 % respectively in comparison to naturally cooled PV module. Similarly, the lowering in temperature using PT/58 along with foam was 3.33 °C for PV panel having only PCM, 6.9 °C for PV panel having PCM with foam of thickness 8 mm and 9.03 °C for PV panel having PCM with foam of thickness 12 mm respectively having highest electrical efficiency 11.32 % , 11.50 % , 11.77 % respectively as compared to reference module. The increment in maximum percentage electrical power was 23.30 % for PV panel having RT44 PCM along foam with 12 mm thickness. The higher thickness of foam along with base phase change material depicted best results with maximum decrement in temperature of PV panel as well as maximum enhancement in conversion efficiency as compared to less value of foam thickness with base PCM. Therefore, this study is especially attractive to young researchers who are working in thermal management of photovoltaic.