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Passive cooling technology for photovoltaic panels for domestic houses

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  • Shenyi Wu
  • Chenguang Xiong

Abstract

The efficiency of photovoltaic panels decreases as the panels' temperature increases, which results in deduction of electricity generation. In order to reduce this effect, different cooling methods were proposed and investigated. This paper reviews the previous work on cooling PV cells and concludes that the cost-effectiveness, design feasibility and minimal energy consumption are the important design consideration for cooling systems. Based on these considerations, this paper reports a passive cooling method that utilizes rainwater as cooling media and a gas expansion device to distribute the rainwater. The gas is thermally expanded from receiving solar radiation as such the amount of water it pushes to flow over the PV cells is proportional with the solar radiation it received. The paper reports a design and simulation of such a system for a domestic house application. In the paper, a relationship of the gas chamber size, solar radiation and gas expansion volume was established for evaluation with respect to the variation of gas temperature and the amount of rainwater used for cooling. A heat transfer model was used to evaluate the performance of the cells by cooling with this passive device. The results show that on a design day, the passive cooling system reduces the temperature of the cells and increases electrical efficiency of the PV panel by 8.3%. The payback period of this system is <14 years.

Suggested Citation

  • Shenyi Wu & Chenguang Xiong, 2014. "Passive cooling technology for photovoltaic panels for domestic houses," International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 118-126.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ijlctc:v:9:y:2014:i:2:p:118-126.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ijlct/ctu013
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    Cited by:

    1. Jan Wajs & Aleksandra Golabek & Roksana Bochniak, 2019. "Photovoltaic Roof Tiles: The Influence of Heat Recovery on Overall Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-12, October.
    2. Jin S. Choi & Byeong G. Choi & Ji H. Kim & Seung-Tak Ryu & Chun T. Rim & Yun-Su Kim, 2019. "New Curved Reflectors for Significantly Enhanced Solar Power Generation in Four Seasons," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Khordehgah, Navid & Guichet, Valentin & Lester, Stephen P. & Jouhara, Hussam, 2019. "Computational study and experimental validation of a solar photovoltaics and thermal technology," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1348-1356.
    4. Abdalqader Ahmad & Helena Navarro & Saikat Ghosh & Yulong Ding & Jatindra Nath Roy, 2021. "Evaluation of New PCM/PV Configurations for Electrical Energy Efficiency Improvement through Thermal Management of PV Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.
    5. Saxena, Ashish & Deshmukh, Sandip & Nirali, Somanath & Wani, Saurabh, 2018. "Laboratory based Experimental Investigation of Photovoltaic (PV) Thermo-control with Water and its Proposed Real-time Implementation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 128-138.
    6. Sargunanathan, S. & Elango, A. & Mohideen, S. Tharves, 2016. "Performance enhancement of solar photovoltaic cells using effective cooling methods: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 382-393.
    7. Shakouri, Mahmoud & Lee, Hyun Woo & Kim, Yong-Woo, 2017. "A probabilistic portfolio-based model for financial valuation of community solar," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 709-726.
    8. Noor Fadzlinda Othman & Mohammad Effendy Ya’acob & Li Lu & Ahmad Hakiim Jamaluddin & Ahmad Suhaizi Mat Su & Hashim Hizam & Rosnah Shamsudin & Juju Nakasha Jaafar, 2023. "Advancement in Agriculture Approaches with Agrivoltaics Natural Cooling in Large Scale Solar PV Farms," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, April.
    9. Elbreki, A.M. & Alghoul, M.A. & Sopian, K. & Hussein, T., 2017. "Towards adopting passive heat dissipation approaches for temperature regulation of PV module as a sustainable solution," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 961-1017.
    10. Karthikeyan Velmurugan & Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan & Pham Van De & Vaithinathan Karthikeyan & Tulja Bhavani Korukonda & Joshuva Arockia Dhanraj & Kanchanok Emsaeng & Md. Shahariar Chowdhury & Kuaan, 2022. "A Review of Heat Batteries Based PV Module Cooling—Case Studies on Performance Enhancement of Large-Scale Solar PV System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-65, February.
    11. Siddiqui, Osman K. & Zubair, Syed M., 2017. "Efficient energy utilization through proper design of microchannel heat exchanger manifolds: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 969-1002.
    12. Chandrasekar, M. & Senthilkumar, T., 2015. "Experimental demonstration of enhanced solar energy utilization in flat PV (photovoltaic) modules cooled by heat spreaders in conjunction with cotton wick structures," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P2), pages 1401-1410.
    13. Lamnatou, Chr. & Mondol, J.D. & Chemisana, D. & Maurer, C., 2015. "Modelling and simulation of Building-Integrated solar thermal systems: Behaviour of the coupled building/system configuration," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 178-191.
    14. Jaemin Kim & Sangmu Bae & Yongdong Yu & Yujin Nam, 2019. "Experimental and Numerical Study on the Cooling Performance of Fins and Metal Mesh Attached on a Photovoltaic Module," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Fahad AlAmri & Gaydaa AlZohbi & Mohammed AlZahrani & Mohammed Aboulebdah, 2021. "Analytical Modeling and Optimization of a Heat Sink Design for Passive Cooling of Solar PV Panel," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-23, March.

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