Nanotechnology Applications for Solar Energy Systems

15 Cooling of PV/ T System with Nanofluid and PCM

Mohit Barthwal¹, Dibakar Rakshit^1,*, and Sujit Kr. Verma²

¹ Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India² Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura, U.P., India^* Corresponding author

15.1 Introduction

15.1.1 Overview

Solar energy is one of the most abundant energy forms available for humankind to be utilized. For instance, the earth intercepts nearly 3 × 1024 J of solar insolation per year [1], which is more than enough for accommodating the global energy demand for a whole year. However, there is an inherent drawback associated with solar energy availability, which is its intermittent nature. There are two primary technologies for utilizing the energy from the sun, which have been developed over the years. These are- photovoltaics and solar thermal technologies. The devices that convert the photon energy of the sunlight into electricity are called solar photovoltaics (SPVs). In contrast, solar thermal technologies are utilized to harness solar energy in the form of thermal energy, i.e., heat.

The commercially available solar photovoltaic panels have an electrical conversion efficiency of 17–19% [2]. This implies that 80% of solar energy is not harnessed due to device limitations and inefficiencies. This chapter aims to introduce a relatively new concept of photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) systems, aiming to address the drawbacks in the present solar photovoltaics ...