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Performance Enhancement of a Photovoltaic Module by Passive Cooling Using Water-Based Aluminum Oxide Nano-Fluid
 
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School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Jordan, Queen Rania St, Amman 11942, Jordan
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Mohammad Ahmad Hamdan   

School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Jordan, Queen Rania St, Amman 11942, Jordan
Publication date: 2022-04-01
 
J. Ecol. Eng. 2022; 23(4):276–286
 
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ABSTRACT
The performance of a PV (photovoltaic) module relies heavily on the operating temperature. The aim of the current study was to improve PV performance by passive cooling with nano-coated aluminum fins attached to the backside of the photovoltaic panels. Four identical PV panels were installed side by side for simultaneous measurements. The first one (B) is a basic PV that was used for comparison purposes, the second one (N) PV, which is coated with water-based Al2O3 nano-fluid, the third is finned PV (F), with fins being attached to its backside and the Al2O3 nano-fluid coated fins are attached to the backside of the fourth PV (FN). The hourly electrical generated power by each PV, I-V, and I_V curves for each PV were recorded and stored using I-V Checker. In addition, the backside temperature of each PV and the ambient temperature were measured on an hourly basis using K-type thermocouples; the measured temperature values were stored in a data logger. It was found that the (FN) PV gave the best performance compared to the base unit, with an increase in the generated power by 5.77%, followed by the nano-coated (N) PV with an increase of 2.14% and finally the finned (F) PV with an increase of 0.74%. Furthermore, the PV with the nano-coated fins exhibits the lower temperature 31°C, followed by the nano-coated PV, and finally the fined PV, with the backside average temperature of the basic unit being 39°C.