Using Polyethylene Glycol, as a Phase Change Material and Fins for the Cooling of Photovoltaic Cells of the Crystalline Type

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Jundi-Shapur University of technology, Dezful, Iran

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Jundi-Shapur University of technology, Dezful, Iran

3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Jundi-Shapur University of Technology, Dezful, Iran

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is one of the most popular methods to produce power. In hot days of the year, when the maximum irradiation of sun is available, the efficiency of PV cells falls down and the cells must be kept cool. In this paper, Polyethylene-Glycol 600 (PEG-600) is used as a phase change material (PCM) is in order to decrease the temperature of PV cells. Moreover, to enhance the heat transfer rate, adding some fins was investigated. The panel equipped with PCM, reached the same temperature as the conventional panel at the last 80 mins of the test, nevertheless, the panel equipped with both PCM and fins, at the end of the experiment, had still about 9°C temperature difference compared with the conventional panel. Furthermore, the maximum efficiency difference between the conventional panel and the one with PCM and the panel with PCM + fins, were about 2.4 % and 4.6 %, respectively. This means that adding fins, plays an important role to increase the efficiency by controlling the cell temperature due to increase the heat exchange between the panel and PCM. Finally, an economical assessment is also presented to verify the industrial feasibility of the proposed prototypes.

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References

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Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 52, Issue 6
September 2020
Pages 1551-1560

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