Investigation of Cooling Techniques for Roof-Mounted Silicon Photovoltaic Panels in the Climate of the UAE: A Computational and Experimental Study

Tarek Abdelaty, Hassam Nasarullah Chaudhry () and John Kaiser Calautit
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Tarek Abdelaty: Department of Architectural Engineering, School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, Heriot-Watt University, Dubai P.O. Box 38103, United Arab Emirates
Hassam Nasarullah Chaudhry: Department of Architectural Engineering, School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, Heriot-Watt University, Dubai P.O. Box 38103, United Arab Emirates
John Kaiser Calautit: Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 18, 1-21

Abstract: The increased adoption of photovoltaic (PV) systems for global decarbonisation necessitates addressing the gap in reduced panel efficiency due to overheating. This issue is especially prominent in countries with extremely hot and humid climates where PV utilisation is hindered by declining panel output. A systematic review of PV cooling techniques suggests passive systems are more economical, sustainable, and easier to implement than active systems, despite possessing a lower cooling potential. Air-based systems were deemed the most viable for the UAE’s climate, considering both performance and cost. Based on these findings, two individual improvements for air-based cooling systems were combined in an attempt to achieve greater cooling: a segmented multiangular aluminium fin heatsink developed from previous works. Various perforation patterns were simulated on the chosen heatsink using CFD software to determine the most optimal arrangement. The original and optimised models were both tested under real-life conditions in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, revealing similar cooling potential between the two. The results of this study indicate that the PV cell temperature can be decreased by up to 10 °C with the placement of an aluminium fin heatsink, which corresponds to an approximate efficiency increase of 5%.

Keywords: photovoltaics; efficiency; passive cooling; air-based systems; aluminium fin heatsink; perforations; computational fluid dynamics; experimental investigation (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: 2023
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