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Article Type

Article

Abstract

Renewable energy is largely produced by photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, but such a process is greatly impacted with thermal buildup as the solar cells work. Redundant heat not only lowers the level of electrical production, but also hastens deterioration and decreases the life-time of PV modules. In this study, we suggest a hybrid system which combines high-performance energy storage devices, namely, super-capacitors, and PV modules coupled with the use of waste heat as a source of useful energy and which increases efficiency of the system in conjunction. In order to estimate the potential amount of thermal energy recovery, as well as to determine the viability of using super-capacitors to provide short-term energy storage it was created a theoretical model. To test the system performance such as temperature reduction in the system, electrical output enhancement, and energy storing capacity, mathematical modeling and comparative analysis were made. The outcomes show that with the application of a rear-side heat exchanger, the temperature of cells can be lowered up to 10–15C, which will yield a power recovery of about 4–6%. Also, the super-capacitors were proved to have sufficient storage capacity to hold large energy in a short period of time and could have been utilized to eliminate any variation of disruption due to variable solar irradiance. The hybrid design under consideration demonstrates great prospects to improve the electrical and thermal performance, especially within hot climates regions. This will help in the designing of more efficient, future sustainable and adaptive solar energy systems and can be used in the future to validate through experiments.

Keywords

Photovoltaic systems, Waste heat recovery, Super-capacitors, Thermal management, Hybrid energy systems, Energy storage

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