Passive thermal management of photovoltaic modules using latent heat storage system with metallic mesh layers and multi-metal spinel oxide nanoparticles

Passive thermal management of photovoltaic (PV) panels is an effective and low-cost method for reducing the surface temperature and improving the power output of these systems. In the current study, it is aimed to upgrade the efficiency of a PV system using a latent heat storage system with metallic mesh layers and multi-metal spinel oxide nanoparticles. The experimental part of this work contains two stages. In the first stage, three PV systems including an unmodified PV, LHSS (only paraffin)-integrated PV system and a LHSS-integrated PV system that modified with metallic mesh layers. As a result of the initial test, the PV system with mesh layers added LHSS gave the best performance results. In the second experiment, the mesh integrated LHSS of the PV system has been modified with MgOAl2O3 nanoparticles for enhanced thermal conductivity and compared with the PV system with mesh layer integrated LHSS containing only paraffin. According to the experimental results of this work, applying different types of LHSS configurations significantly reduced the surface temperature of the PV panel. The overall outcomes of the present work showed that using a LHSS with MgOAl2O3 nanoparticles-doped paraffin and metallic mesh layers upgraded the normalized power output efficiency and performance ratio of the unmodified system as 17.43% and 15.72%, respectively.