On the Efficacy of PCM to Shave Peak Temperature of Crystalline Photovoltaic Panels: An FDM Model and Field Validation

6533b7d7fe1ef96bd1268ecb

RESEARCH PRODUCT

On the Efficacy of PCM to Shave Peak Temperature of Crystalline Photovoltaic Panels: An FDM Model and Field Validation

Valerio Lo Brano Antonio Piacentino Fabio Cardona Giuseppina Ciulla

subject

Engineering Control and Optimization Energy Engineering and Power Technology Mechanical engineering Thermal energy storage lcsh:Technology jel:Q40 experimental validation jel:Q jel:Q43 jel:Q42 Settore ING-IND/10 - Fisica Tecnica Industriale Electronic engineering jel:Q41 Energy transformation jel:Q48 jel:Q47 crystalline photovoltaic module Electrical and Electronic Engineering Engineering (miscellaneous)finite difference method jel:Q49 Settore ING-IND/11 - Fisica Tecnica Ambientale Renewable Energy Sustainability and the Environment business.industry lcsh:T Photovoltaic system Energy conversion efficiency Finite difference method Finite difference jel:Q0 phase change material; crystalline photovoltaic modules; heat storage; finite difference method; experimental validation Phase-change material jel:Q4 Renewable energy heat storage crystalline photovoltaic modules business phase change material Energy (miscellaneous)

description

The exploitation of renewable energy sources and specifically photovoltaic (PV) devices have been showing significant growth; however, for a more effective development of this technology it is essential to have higher energy conversion performances. PV producers often declare a higher efficiency respect to real conditions and this deviation is mainly due to the difference between nominal and real temperature conditions of the PV. In order to improve the solar cell energy conversion efficiency many authors have proposed a methodology to keep the temperature of a PV system lower: a modified crystalline PV system built with a normal PV panel coupled with a Phase Change Material (PCM) heat storage device. In this paper a thermal model analysis of the crystalline PV-PCM system based on a theoretical study using finite difference approach is described. The authors developed an algorithm based on an explicit finite difference formulation of energy balance of the crystalline PV-PCM system. Two sets of recursive equations were developed for two types of spatial domains: a boundary domain and an internal domain. The reliability of the developed model is tested by a comparison with data coming from a test facility. The results of numerical simulations are in good agreement with experimental data.

year	journal	country	edition	language
2013-11-28	Energies

10.3390/en6126188 http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/6/12/6188