Comparative Assessment of Three Cooling Designs on the Energy and Exergy Performance of a Concentrated Photovoltaic Panel

Abstract

Abstract. Photovoltaic (PV) panels reach high temperatures during energy conversion, resulting in performance degradation. To prevent this situation, various cooling methods are applied to PVs. In this study, a cooling channel and thermoelectric generator (TEG) were utilized in concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) cooling. Three different configurations were designed, and the effects of increasing solar concentration ratio (C = 1–6) on the energy and exergy performances were investigated. The CPV-channel, CPV-channel-TEG, and CPV-TEG-channel designs were named as Cases 1–3, respectively. Nanofluid was applied as a cooling fluid to each channel design. This study utilized aluminum oxide–water (Al2O3) nanofluid. Aluminum oxide–water was applied in the channel system at a volume fraction of 3% at Re = 1000 and an inlet temperature of 20 °C. Under the influence of these parameters, energy and exergy analyses of Cases 1–3 were carried out. Electrical power from PV was most enhanced in Case 2. On the other hand, the highest TEG electrical power was achieved in Case 3. The change of C from minimum to maximum resulted in the highest total output power value for Case 3. In Case 3 for C = 6, with 21.24% and 19.24% higher total output power compared to Cases 1 and 2, respectively. From C = 1 to 6 caused a decrease of 15.34% and 12.95% in the electrical exergy efficiency of Cases 1 and 2, respectively, while it provided a 2% improvement in Case 3. The thermal exergy efficiency, which reaches the maximum value at C = 6, is 1.18%, 1.14%, and 11.21% at C = 6 for Cases 1–3, respectively. The increase in C had different effects for Cases 1–3. Both PV and TEG were utilized most effectively in Case 3.