Experimental and Numerical Study on the Cooling Performance of Fins and Metal Mesh Attached on a Photovoltaic Module

Jaemin Kim, Sangmu Bae, Yongdong Yu and Yujin Nam
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Jaemin Kim: Department of Architectural Engineering, Pusan National University, 2 Busandaehak-ro 63, Geomjeong-gu, Busan 46241, Korea
Sangmu Bae: Department of Architectural Engineering, Pusan National University, 2 Busandaehak-ro 63, Geomjeong-gu, Busan 46241, Korea
Yongdong Yu: POSCO, 100, Songdogwahak-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 21985, Korea
Yujin Nam: Department of Architectural Engineering, Pusan National University, 2 Busandaehak-ro 63, Geomjeong-gu, Busan 46241, Korea

Energies, 2019, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: The electrical efficiency and durability of a photovoltaic (PV) cell degrades as its temperature increases. Accordingly, there have been continued efforts to control the cell temperature by cooling the PV module. Generally, passive PV cooling using heat sinks attached on the back of the PV module can improve the electrical efficiency. However, few experimental studies have evaluated the effect of the heat sink shape on PV cooling. Therefore, this study proposed a passive cooling technology using meshes made of iron and aluminum, and performed indoor tests using a solar simulator to analyze the cooling performance. The experimental results demonstrated that iron and aluminum meshes reduced the PV module temperature by approximately 4.35 °C and 6.56 °C, respectively. Additionally, numerical studies were performed using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to compare the cooling fins and meshes. The numerical results showed that the cooling fins exhibited a better cooling performance than the metal mesh. However, meshes can be mass-produced and have a high structural stability against wind loads. Meshes are more likely be applied to PV systems than cooling fins if adhesion were improved.

Keywords: solar energy; indoor test; computational fluid dynamics; photovoltaic module; passive cooling; cooling fin; metal mesh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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