Numerical Study on Uniform Passive Cooling Configurations for Photovoltaic Modules in Hot Climatic Conditions

Abstract

The reduction in efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) modules when operating at high temperatures is a challenge that demands effective and economical cooling solutions. As such, aluminum heat sinks provide a passive and carbon-neutral cooling method. This study aims to find the performances of five different geometries of aluminum heat sinks to be used for cooling PV modules, where a comparative analysis of their relative performances under controlled environmental variables is performed under steady-state condition. The results show that an arrangement of solid T-shaped aluminum fins as heat sinks provides a 3.14% further reduction in PV module temperature compared to its perforated counterpart. The variation of the average PV module temperature has been compared in terms of solar radiation, ambient temperature, as well as the convection heat transfer coefficients for each heat sink geometry, where the relationship between each pair of data has been identified. The analysis reveals that performance differences may be better observed at lower values for the convection coefficient and higher values for the ambient temperatures. The methodology followed in this study provides a base model for comparing the relative performances of the chosen heat sink geometries, thus providing scopes of continuation of this work.