A computational study of passive cooling of photovoltaic panels using hybrid material heat sink

Abstract

Photovoltaic panels generate electricity from solar energy based on the photovoltaic effect. The conversion efficiency of photovoltaic panels depends on many factors such as solar radiation, wind speed, dust, orientation, tilt angle, and operating temperature. When the operating temperature increases by 1 C, the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic panels decreases by 0.4% - 0.5%. Heat sink is a device used to cool electrical and electronic equipment, including photovoltaic panels. This paper presents calculating the cooling capability of hybrid heat sink made from two materials in steady state using heat transfer theory. Heat sink base is constructed from aluminum and copper layers, with copper layer thickness is 1 and 2 mm. Under different conditions of radiation intensity, wind speed, and tilt angle of photovoltaic panel, results show that heat sink added copper layers of 1 and 2 mm, the operating temperature decreases by about 0.6 K and 1.2 K compared to the aluminum base. Accordingly, the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic panel increased by 0.1% and 0.2%.