Performance enhancement of the photovoltaic cells using Al2O3/PCM mixture and/or water cooling-techniques

This work experimentally investigates the performance of a PV module cooling effect using a compound enhancement technique. This is by employing water and/or Al2O3/PCM mixture with different nanoparticles mass concentrations (phi) from 0 to 1% and mass fluxes of the cooling water from 0 to 5.31 kg/s.m(2) through straight aluminium channels beneath the PV panel. The effect of the occupation ratio of the Al2O3/PCM (lambda(PCM)) in the channels from 0 (100% water) to 100% (0% water) is also examined. The results illustrate that the Al2O3 nanoparticles of phi = 1% makes the compound technique (Al2O3/PCM mixture + water) better than the cooling with 100% water. Compared with all studied cooling techniques parameters, it is observed that the compound technique; Al2O3(phi = 1%)/PCM mixture (lambda(PCM) = 25%) + 75% water (5.31 kg/s.m(2)) achieves the highest PV performance. However, although the Al2O3/PCM mixture of lambda(PCM) = 100% does not provide the highest PV electrical output power, it may be a superior solution for the PV cooling as it solves the problems of using the cooling water. Finally, experimental correlations are presented to predict the electrical, thermal, and overall exergy efficiencies of the PV cell. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.