Smart Cooling System For Solar Photovoltaic Module

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) modules have the capacity to generate electricity when solar radiation is incident on them. But this incident radiation causes an increase in temperature of PV module which results in decrease in its efficiency. This adverse effect invites a necessity to cool the module. In this project, an efficient way has been designed by introducing a smart cooling system consisting of a heat exchanger which helps in extracting the heat generated by the PV module and thus increases its efficiency. The cooling system used is a combination of active and passive cooling methods. Aluminium alloy 6063 is used as a heatsink material along with the PCM which is fixed to the back side of the PV panel. Here we use a combination of paraffin wax and bee wax as phase changing material (PCM). Smart Cooling system is used to cool both the heatsink and PV module. Experiment will be carried out with the comparison of normal PV module and PV module with Smart cooling system. Various performance parameter such as current, voltage and power are obtained, the values obtained are compared with a normal PV module. It was found that the PV module with PCM integrated system was more efficient compared to normal PV module. ANASYS CFD analysis shows that the adopted smart cooling system will maintain the PV module with in the required temperature for more efficient performance.