Novel thermal conductivity enhancing containers for performance enhancement of solar photovoltaics system integrated with phase change material

Sourav Khanna, Preeti Singh, Vijay Mudgal, Sanjeev Newar, Vashi Sharma, Victor Becerra, K.S. Reddy and Tapas K. Mallick

Energy, 2022, vol. 243, issue C

Abstract: Phase change material (PCM) has capability to increase the power production of solar photovoltaics (PV) by effective temperature regulation. In this work, Thermal Conductivity Enhancing Containers (TCEC) are proposed. They allow the PCM to extract the heat from all sides of the containers instead of only front which improves the thermal conductivity of the PCM containers and increases the PV electrical efficiency. PCM was filled inside the TCECs and pasted at the back of the PV. Systems with and without PCM, with and without TCEC and systems with different tilt angles have been investigated. The melting of PCM, rate of thermal energy storage, charging efficiency and enhancement in PV performance are analyzed. The behavior of the systems is analyzed for the climates of Portsmouth, UK and Chennai, India. It is seen that the average charging efficiency of PCM can be increased from 49% to 62% using proposed TCEC. Moreover, the average rate of thermal energy storage can be increased from 249 W/m2 of aperture to 302 W/m2 and the PV electrical efficiency can be increased from 17.6% to 19.2% using TCEC-PCM. It is also seen that as the inclination of PCM container decreases from 45° to 0°, the charging efficiency decreases by 32%.

Keywords: Charging efficiency; Energy storage; Solar; Photovoltaics; Phase change material (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:243:y:2022:i:c:s0360544221031728

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.122923

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