An Overview on the Use of Phase Change Material (PCM) for PV Cooling

The thermal management processes for PhotoVoltaic (PV) cooling applications, increase PV systems’ overall efficiency and yield to a maximized power generation. Accordingly, this paper investigates recent PV thermal management methods, which involve the use of Phase Change Material (PCM) under the back of PV modules. Compared to other cooling methods (such as air and water based methods) PCM based techniques show less need for maintenance, are environment-friendly, and have a longer life cycle. Since PCM are diverse in nature, and many methods exist to guide their selection procedure, this paper begins by revealing different types of PCM, which are found to be as Organic, Inorganic, Eutectic and Commercial PCM, with the characteristics of each. After acknowledging different PCM natures, a selection process is established based on either the melting temperature, latent heat, or thermal conductivity of PCM. Results have shown that Commercial PCM are the best option followed by Organic PCM, due to their improved chemical aspects when compared with Inorganic and Eutectic PCM. Concerning PCM selection criteria, the easiest yet sufficient process is based on the melting temperature method, due to the simplified calculations when compared to other thermic quantities. At the end, future work recommendations are declared, related to PCM lifecycle assessment and cooling/heating cycles effects on PV entropy.