Role of phase change materials thickness for photovoltaic thermal management

Abstract The efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) panels plummet due to its escalating surface or operating temperature. Knowing this fact, the thermal regulation of PV panels is inevitable. Passive cooling techniques i.e. using phase change material (PCM) has gained attention in recent years for thermal regulation of PV panels. The present study investigates the performance of PV panels by varying thickness of hybrid PCMs in the climate of Taxila, Pakistan. The two PCMs having various melting points, kept apart by an aluminum plate were placed on rear side of PV module. The performance of three different configurations (B, C, D) of PV panels containing various thickness of hybrid PCMs was measured with respect to configuration A which was subjected to natural cooling. The PV panel configuration that has more amount of low melting point PCM as compared to other PCM showed better performance. It was witnessed that average reduction in temperature for configurations ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ were 4.9 °C, 6.5 °C and 8.1 °C respectively in comparison to configuration “A”. Also, increment of electrical efficiency for these three configurations were observed as 5.0%, 6.1% and 7.8% respectively due to enhancement in electrical power of PV panels. The configuration “D” having highest thickness of low melting PCM indicated best results in the sense of electrical power and electrical efficiency as compared to the other two configurations B and C having high melting PCMs.