Thermal management of solar PV module by using hollow rectangular aluminum fins

Abstract

Some of the recent challenges encountered in research and development of the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry include the decrease in electrical output efficiency of a conventional solar PV module due to the rise in its surface temperature. The main objective of this research work is to enhance and improve the electrical output efficiency of a common silicon-based solar PV module by lowering the operating temperature of the PV module, which was accomplished by attaching hollow rectangular aluminum tubes as a fin to the rear surface of the solar PV panel. The proposed geometrical configuration of tubes helped to increase the PV module heat transfer rate to the surrounding air by increasing the effective heat transfer area without increasing the overall weight of the PV module. In this experimental study, a comparative analysis has been presented for PV modules with fins and without fins. The results obtained from experiments demonstrated that the attached fins reduced the average temperature of the front and rear surfaces up to 8.97% and 8.41%, respectively. The cooling effect produced due to fins improved the open circuit voltage up to 12.97% and the electrical output efficiency up to 2.08%. Furthermore, the results are thoroughly compared with other published studies, which revealed that the proposed configuration is cost effective and structurally sound.