A review for solar panels cooling techniques and efficiency enhancement: Numerical studies

Abstract

The efficiency and performance of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels are significantly impacted by elevated operating temperatures, with every degree Celsius increase potentially reducing conversion efficiency by (0.4-0.5) %. Numerical studies published during the last decade designated the cooling techniques to passive, active and hybrid strategies Although various numerical frameworks—including CFD, FEM, lumped-parameter, three-dimensional numerical, and equivalent circuit models—were employed and solved using ANSYS Fluent, COMSOL, MATLAB, and OpenFOAM, the thermal management performance was evaluated using unified performance indicators. These included module temperature reduction, maximum operating temperature, temperature uniformity, and the corresponding electrical efficiency improvement, enabling consistent cross-model comparison. This paper focuses on review the published paper in this context which performs numerical studies on PV panel cooling with a focus on computational techniques that allow for deep analysis and improvement of thermal management systems. The combination of detailed CFD simulations using advanced turbulence models and different software to solve them creates a complete framework for new ideas in PV thermal management.