The performance of a photovoltaics (PV) panel is dependent on its surface temperature. Cooling the PV panel can substantially enhance its efficiency and thus the output power. Thermal management with spray cooling in porous nanochannels device (wicking channels for the passive flow of liquid) offers a high heat flux removal capability due to the thin film evaporation occurring at the micro and nano scale menisci. By integrating the nanochannels device on the back face of the PV panel, it is possible to dissipate high heat from the PV panel so that it operates within the desired range of temperature values. In the present work, we utilize the results of spray cooling on such nanochannels device and perform the numerical investigation of PV panel cooling and enhancement in power output. A range of incident solar irradiation 500 – 900 W/cm2 is considered on a reference PV panel of size 290 mm * 180 mm on which, the transient state transport equation for energy balance is solved numerically for 6 &nbsp;cases. With the applied thermal management using the nanochannels device, the power output of the PV panel is enhanced by ~27% for the maximum solar irradiation of 900 W/cm2.

Numerical Investigation of Photovoltaics Cooling Using Wicking Channels

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/HT/HT2021/volume/84874

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