Enhancing Solar Panel Efficiency: A Comparative Study of PV Systems with and without Phase Change Materials (PCM)

Abstract

The use of thermal storage materials, like as Phase Change Materials (PCM), in PV panels has been studied to magnification the performance efficiency of the panels by alleviate the negative effects of temperature rise on their performance. (PCMs) recover a large heat during transformation from solid to liquid phase because of having a large latent heat which making it full of promise for thermal energy storage applications.

 This work made a comparison between the performance efficiency of solar panels with and without using PCM, highlighting how thermal storage materials improve overall performance. The efficiency of PV panels mainly related to operating temperature which decreases as the surface temperature increases. This study discuss use of Phase change Material (PCM) based cooling to reduce the rise of temperature of PV panels and enhance their efficiency. The primary parameters studied and measured were the surface temperature of the PV panel and its efficiency. The result 0f experiments demonstrate that the use of PCM cooling system  led to efficiency improvements of 4.2%, 4.1%, and 3.9% in different conditions. The corresponding maximum temperature decreasing achieved were 14.1°C, 12.1°C, and 9.5°C, respectively. These findings has proven that the use  of PCM cooling systems to impact the performance of PV panels by effectively managing temperature has contributed to improving and increase efficiency of PV panels.