Efficiency Improvement of Photovoltaic Panels by Using Air Cooled Heat Sinks

The operating temperature of photovoltaic panels represents an important parameter that influences their conversion efficiency. High operating temperatures determine a decrease of maximum output power in the same conditions of solar radiation. The study presents a numerical approach of the reduction of temperature of the photovoltaic panels by using the air cooled heat sinks. The heat sink is conceived as a ribbed wall, realized of a high thermal conductivity material. The cooling efficiency is studied for different configurations of the heat sink, obtained by modifying the angle between the ribs and the base plate. The numerical model was realized using ANSYS-Fluent software for turbulent flow and the results are presented for the average temperature of the photovoltaic panel.