Experimental Study of Phase Change Material Effect as a Passive Cooling Method on the Daily Electrical Performance of a Photovoltaic Panel under Moroccan Climate

Abstract

A photovoltaic system using a phase change material as cooling technology (PV-PCM) is analyzed under Morocco’s climatic environment in order to evaluate the performance of the system in terms of daily energy saving. A paraffin wax type of PCM with a melting temperature of 25°C is integrated in the back of photovoltaic panel to analyze the effect of this added material on temperature profile and also on the output power generated by the PV panel used. A numerical simulation with finite element method, contains a coupling between the Navier–Stokes equation and the general heat equation is developed and validated with an experimental setup in the aim to predict the thermal behavior of the phase change material used in the back of PV panel under daily temperature and illumination conditions. As a result, an important reduction in PV temperature is observed and also a significant increase in PV output power due to cooling produced by PCM has been noticed and quantified presented by a gain in daily PV productivity more than 10% is obtained using this type of phase change material under hot environment conditions.