Assisted Turbulence Convective Heat Transfer for Cooling the Photovoltaic Cells

Solar PV (photovoltaic) is a rapidly advancing renewable energy technology which converts sunlight directly into electricity. One of the outstanding challenges of the current PV technology is the reduction in its conversion efficiency with increasing PV panel temperature, which is closely associated with the increase in solar intensity and the ambient temperature surrounding the PV panels. To more effectively capture the available energy when the sun is most intense, significant efforts have been invested in active and passive cooling research over the last few years. While integrated cooling systems can lead to the highest total efficiencies, they are usually neither the most feasible nor the most cost effective solution. This work examines some simple passive means of manipulating the prevailing wind turbulence to enhance convective heat transfer over a heated plate in a wind tunnel. Specific turbulence generators are devised based on knowledge gained from orificed perforated plate turbulence study.