Methodologies Employed to Cool Photovoltaic Modules for Enhancing Efficiency: A Review

Abstract

Photovoltaic cells are one of the renewable energy sources that have been employed to produce electrical energy from solar radiation falling on them, but not all incident radiate will produce electrical energy, part of those radiate cause the panel temperature to rise, reducing its efficiency and its operational life, unless an attempt is made to employ one of the traditional cooling methods or innovating other methods to cooling it to reduce this effect, which it represented in the active and passive cooling method. In fact, it is difficult to compare the active method with the passive method, as each method has its Advantages and disadvantages that may suit one region without another. But in general, there are basic factors through which at least a comparison between the two methods can be made. Relatively the passive method is less expensive, in addition to no need for additional parts such as pumps and controllers, there is no energy consumption because it does not require power. But it is less effective and efficient than the active method, while the active method has the ability to disperse the heat higher than the passive method. However, it necessitates the use of electricity and is frequently costlier than the passive strategy. In this review, the most common active and passive cases were reviewed, and the pros and cons of each case are summarized in discussion due to the difficulty to list them. The review recommends that future studies should focus on active water cooling and heat-sink, both of which are viable cooling strategies. K eyw or ds : Cooling Methods, Photovoltaic/Thermal, Energy Efficiency, and Temperature Effect