Enhance photovoltaic/thermal system performance by using nanofluid

The operating temperature of the PV system greatly affect the system efficiency. To resolve this problem, cooling techniques are used to dissipate the heat from PV/T module. An experimental has been setup to investigate the thermal efficiency of the PV/T module using nanofluid at constant mass flow rate. AL₂O₃-water nanofluid is used to reduce the operating temperature of PV/T panel. The results indicated that the temperature of the PV/T module was 79.1°C and a conversion efficiency is about 8% without using AL₂O₃-water. On the otherhand, using nanofluid at concentration ratio of 0.3% at constant mass flow rate of 0.2L/s, the temperature is dropped to 42.2°C at the same test condition(irradiation 1000W/m² and 24 minute test time),This led to increasing in the efficiency of solar panel to 12.1%. The heat was extracted from the PV/T module by using cooling system with nanofluid that can contribute to the overall energy output of the system.