Thermal management of photovoltaic module with metal matrix embedded PCM

The ineluctable growth of Photo-Voltaic (PV) systems highlights the importance of improving its efficiency. As distinguishable part of irradiance is converted to heat, the performance of PV module deteriorates. Amongst several PV thermal management techniques, use of Phase Changing Material (PCM) proved to be effective in both PV and PV-thermal (PV/T) systems. However, its low thermal conductivity (both in solid and liquid phase) attracts heat spreader. In the present study, a novel type of aluminum metal matrix having honeycomb structure has been incorporated in PV/T system. As the matrix is porous in nature, diffusion rate is better compared to solid metal plate. An extensive outdoor experiments revealed the improvement in various energy parameters viz. open circuit voltage, short circuit current, conversion efficiency compared to conventional PCM based PV/T as well as PV system. The maximum improvement of 8.6% in conversion efficiency is possible with the present model against 3.5% with PCM based PV/T due to temperature drop of 11.1% and 7.9% respectively.