engleski

Experimental examination of different passive cooling configurations for photovoltaics with application of phase change materials

This paper summarizes experimental experience related to the passive cooled silicon photovoltaic panels (PV) in the circumstances of the Mediterranean climate conditions. The main idea of the research was to reconsider the normally applied passive cooling approach for PVs in the case when the PV panel is being cooled with a phase-change material (PCM). In the already experimentally examined cases in the existing literature, that has considered PV-PCM cooling configuration, usually one solid container filled with PCM is attached to the backside surface of the PV panel in order to regulate the operating temperature of the PV panel. In the here considered method instead of one PCM loaded container, we have used several smaller containers loaded with PCM material. Gained results are compared with the case of the PV-PCM system cooled by one solid container since two PV-PCM configurations were simultaneously tested and compared with the referent PV panel. The final goal was to investigate the suitability of the proposed approach towards better thermal regulation of the PCM layer followed by a reduced quantity of the wasted PCM material.

photovoltaics, passive cooling, efficiency, renewable energy.

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