New thermal management technique for PV module using Mist/PCM/Husk: An experimental study

The increasing temperature significantly influences the performance of a photovoltaic system. It reduces the efficiency as well as the operational life span of the PV panel. Thus pursuing an efficient cooling system that reduces the thermal stress in PV panels could improve PV system overall performance. A combination of passive cooling and active mist cooling is introduced and evaluated in detail. Paraffin wax as phase change material (PCM) and coconut husk as a passive cooling material are selected based on their availability, eco-friendly and stable nature. Initially, paraffin wax and husk are integrated on the rear side of PV panels. The results have indicated that under the average irradiance of 752 W/m² and ambient temperature of 41.59 °C, the avg. front surface temperatures can reach up to 62.57 °C with a peak value of 67.37 °C and the avg. temperature on rear side ramps up to 69.02 °C with a peak value of 74.25 °C. PCM cooling reduces both front and rear surface temperatures by 0.92% and 12.83% as compared to the reference PV panel. A power enhancement of 2.05% has been observed. The integration of husk on the rear surface of the PV panel elevates both front and rear surface temperatures by 2.07% and 0.33%, respectively, resulting in a 0.82% reduction in PV power. The cooling process is enhanced by introducing hybrid cooling i.e. active mist cooling combined with passive cooling. Under an avg. irradiance of 725.53W/m² and ambient temperature of 42.05 °C, the front and rear surfaces temperature of PV-Mist are 49.51 °C and 48.63 °C, respectively. In case of PV-PCM with mist cooling, the front surface temperature increases by 16.14% while the rear surface temperature decreases by 6.03%. This results in an overall improvement of the PV panel's power by 0.32%. On the other hand, with the application of husk, an increase of 0.70% in the front surface and a 17.87% increase in the rear surface temperature are observed, leading to the deterioration of PV power by 2.72%. The results conclude that the PV-PCM with mist cooling performs best among the analyzed techniques.