Optimization of solar photovoltaic system integrated with phase change material

The rise in the temperature of photovoltaic (PV) leads to decrease in the solar to electricity conversion efficiency. This paper presents a simulated study to investigate the thermal management of the PV panel using phase change material (PCM). It is found that once the PCM is fully melted, the rate of heat extraction by PCM decreases and, thus, the PV temperature starts increasing rapidly. In literature, the studies related to the performance analysis of the PV-PCM system are available. However, the optimization of the PCM quantity to cool the PV in various operating conditions and solar radiation levels is not available. Thus, it has been carried out in the presented work. The effects of the operating conditions (wind azimuth angle i.e. wind direction, wind velocity, melting temperature of PCM and ambient temperature) on the optimum depth of the PCM container have been analysed. The results show that as wind azimuth angle increases from 0 degrees to 90 degrees, the optimum depth of the PCM container (to maintain the PV at lower temperature) increases from 3.9 cm to 5.3 cm for Sigma I-T = 5 kWh/m(2)/day and from 2.4 cm to 3.2 cm for Sigma I-T = 3 kWh/m(2)/day for the chosen parameters.