Experimental study for the application of different cooling techniques in photovoltaic (PV) panels

This article contains the experimental investigations of different cooling methods used for photovoltaic (PV) panels. Phase change material (PCM), thermoelectric (FE) and aluminum fins were chosen as the cooling methods. The CaCl2 center dot 6H(2)O is chosen as one of the PCM which is widely used in the cooling of PVs and the other is the PCM with melting temperature above the surface temperature of the PV panel. By using TE material in different numbers (6, 8 and 12) and aluminum fins in different layouts, surface temperatures and output powers of PV panels were compared. It is observed that the PCM which is not chosen appropriately has insulation feature in the PV panel and enhances the temperature of the panel and decreases the output power. When the most successful cooling methods were tested under the same environmental conditions, PV with fin system produced the highest power generation of 47.88 W while PV with PCM and TEM produced the lowest power generation of 44.26 W.