Review of photovoltaic module cooling methods and performance evaluation of the radiative cooling method

摘要

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art cooling methods of photovoltaic (PV) modules and evaluates the performance of the radiative cooling method in detail. Higher operating temperatures of PV modules cause degradation of conversion efficiency and long-term reliability. To overcome this drawback, active or passive cooling methods using heat pipe, natural/forced air flow, forced water flow, phase change material, direct liquid immersion/submerging, and passive heat sink have been studied. In this paper, the methodologies and cooling effects of various cooling methods in the literature are summarized to provide a comprehensive overview of the current cooling technologies. Then, the performance of the radiative cooling method, which is simple and passive (zero power consumption) method, is quantitatively evaluated based on a detailed heat transfer model considering sky radiation properties in four typical climate conditions. Daily heat budgets of the PV modules with different surface emissivity spectra are simulated to estimate the solar cell temperature. The results indicate that modification of the surface emissivity spectrum hardly contribute to the radiative cooling enhancement under any climate conditions, as compared to the conventional glass cover. The present findings serve as a guide for future research and development of better cooling methods.