Comprehensive review of state-of-the-art photovoltaic cooling technologies

Abstract

Solar energy, an endless source of electrical power and thermal energy, is one of the most promising ways to meet the energy demands of cities in the climate-change era. However, despite being a sustainable system for using solar energy, photovoltaic systems have only a maximum efficiency of 20% due to the inevitable temperature rise on PV cells' surfaces. To maintain Standard Test Conditions, passive, active, or a combination of cooling techniques are employed in order to cool down the surface temperature of the module. In this review paper, we presented a comprehensive classification of all the possible cooling technologies and evaluated the most recent studies of each cooling method to provide a thorough encyclopedia with a holistic consideration of installation configuration of each technique. Following outcomes are the results of the present review: (1) Passive cooling methods have the advantage of being easy to implement and less expensive, despite being generally more efficient. (2) Active cooling techniques are usually more expensive and difficult to install and maintain, making them less likely to be implemented on a large scale. (3) The evaluation indicated that Nano fluid cooling methods recorded the least satisfactory results with temperature reduction up to 2.4°C and electrical efficiency improvement of 9.7% at maximum based the reviewed studies, while (4) using fluid-based active cooling techniques in the form of jet impingement and spectrum filtering showed highly impressive improvements with up to 46°C and 33°C temperature reduction and 53 % and 47.67% enhancement in electrical efficiency, respectively. Suggested research direction for future studies is on less complicated cooling technologies with minimal installation which makes them easier to install and maintain, resulting in more probable applications for both domestic and large-scale implications.