Experimental and numerical study of enhancing the electrical performance of photovoltaic panel using phase change material in transient conditions

This study investigates employing a phase change material (PCM) to enhance the electrical power production and efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) panels. The PCM was placed at the backside of the collector, and the actual PV cell temperature values were recorded and evaluated by comparison in both cases with and without PCM. During the daytime and according to experimental findings, the existence of PCM decreased the cell temperature by an additional 9.5°C compared to a standard PV panel. The maximum generated power values using the hybrid PV/PCM system were 38.76 W on August 5^th and 47 W on October 23^rd, respectively. Conversely, the conventional PV generated only 35.2 W and 37 W on the same days. The results also revealed that the best electrical efficiencies were reached using the PV/PCM system at values of 12.1% and 15%, compared to 9.2% and 11.9% for conventional PV on the same days. A 1.38% greater energy production efficiency was reached using the hybrid PV/PCM system. Finally, using a numerical approach, the differential equations governing the energy exchange between the different layers were solved for both systems, and an excellent agreement for both the numerical results and the experimental data was confirmed.