Effects of different tilt angles on the thermo-electrical performance of a PV/PCM system

Abstract

The use of phase change material (PCM) for enhancing the thermal effect of photovoltaic (PV) panels has been studied by a number of researchers in recent years. Tilt angle of the installed PV panels has a great influence on the power generation especially for the fixed type installation. This study presents an experimental-based approach to investigate the effects of utilizing PCM to manage the PV system's thermal behaviours. It includes (1) the effects of different PV/PCM system's tilt angles on the PCM's melting behaviour that causes the rising the system's temperature, (2) the effects of convection heat transfer mechanism with different tilt angle on the heat transfer inside PV/PCM container, and (3) the effects on the PV panel electrical performance-enhancing. The tilt angles used in this study are 0°, 30°, 60° and 90°. The results show that the increase in the PV/PCM system tilt angle from 0° to 90° led to a decrease in the PV's cell temperature from-0.4% to -12%, due to the fact of the overwhelming effect of the natural convection regime inside PCM container as a passive cooling mechanism. As a result, the PV cell's electrical performance is improved where Isc decreases from -0.1% to -3%, Voc increases from 0.2% to 7%, and the fill factor increases from 0.1% to 3%. With these improvements, the electrical efficiency of the PV cell is increased from 0.2% to 5%.