  The photoelectric conversion efficiency of a solar cell is dependent on its
temperature. When the solar radiation is incident on the photovoltaics (PV)
panel, a large portion of it is absorbed by the underlying material which
increases its internal energy leading to the generation of heat. An overheated
PV panel results in a decline in its performance which calls for an efficient
cooling mechanism that can offer an optimum output of the electrical power. In
the present numerical work, thermal management with a porous nanochannels
device capable to dissipate high heat flux is employed to regulate the
temperature of a commercial PV panel by integrating the device on the back face
of the panel. The spatial and temporal variation of the PV surface temperature
is obtained by solving the energy balance equation numerically. By evaluating
the steady-state PV surface temperature with and without thermal management,
the extent of cooling and the resulting enhancement in the electrical power
output is studied in detail. The nanochannels device is found to reduce the PV
surface temperature significantly with an average cooling of 31.5 oC.
Additionally, the enhancement in the electrical power output by ~33% and the
reduction in the response time to 1/8th highlight the potential of using porous
nanochannels as a thermal management device. Furthermore, the numerical method
is used to develop a universal curve which can predict the extent of PV cooling
for any generic thermal management device.
