A technoeconomic study of photovoltaic panel having various geometrical heat sink with macro-encapsulation of nano PCM

Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are engineered to produce electrical voltage upon exposure to sunlight. When sunlight interacts with the active portion of the panel, the surface temperature of the photovoltaic cell increases. Consequently, the output voltage of the PV cell decreases as its surface temperature rises, leading to a decline in the PV module's output power. Various studies have explored the utilization of different types of heat sinks equipped with PCM to mitigate the operating temperature of the PV module. However, the challenges inherent in these investigations include the augmented weight and size of the PV module post-modifications, chance of PCM leakages, and the complexity of affixing substantial size of heat sinks, resulting in the inhibition of heat transfer from module’s back surface through natural convection. This research aims to create a comparative technoeconomic analysis of various geometrically designed heat sinks utilizing macro-encapsulation of nano PCM to address the mentioned problem. A series of experiments were carried out on three types of PV modules, one featuring rectangular pipes encapsulated with nano PCM (PV-RE), another with drilled cylindrical rods encapsulated with nano PCM (PV-CY), and a third is the reference PV module. The key findings reveal the average temperature reduction for PV-RE and PV-CY was 2.95℃ and 3.02℃. The improvement in ECEs is from 10.68 % to 11.66%, and 12.22 for PV-CY and PV-RE, respectively. Economically, the modified PV modules demonstrate shorter payback periods: 2.71 years for PV-CY and 2.65 years for PV-RE, versus the PV-Ref which is 2.84 years.