Thermal management of a mono-crystalline PV/T system using gold plasmonic nanofluid based optical filter

Solar energy can fulfill most of the world's electrical and thermal energy demands. The utilization of nanofluids in solar Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) systems, to enhance the overall system performance using passive and active methods, have been studied explicitly in the last few years. More recently, nanofluid-based optical filters are integrated in decoupled fashion with Photovoltaic (PV) systems for the effective utilization of solar spectrum i.e. below and beyond the band-gap of PV cells. For the work presented here, we compared thermal performance of Au nanofluid-based optical filter (at 0.0002 wt%)over base fluid water on a 50 W mono-crystalline PV module under real outdoor conditions. The study results showed that in comparison to DI water, Au lowers the average surface temperature of the PV module, and hence better overall system efficiency compared to water as an optical filter. The overall efficiency of PV/T system was observed about 42%, 37% and 14% with Au nanofluid optical filter, de-ionized water filter, and bare PV module, respectively. This study revealed that the overall efficiency of the PV module with Au nanofluid as the optical filter can be enhanced.