Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Vol. 14, No. 1, April 2019, pp. 375~380

ISSN: 2502-4752, DOI: 10.11591/ijeecs.v14.i1.pp375-380  375

Performance effect of applying paraffin wax on solar

photovoltaic backplate

E. Roslan, A. Razak
Department of Mechanical, College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia

Article Info ABSTRACT

Article history: The efficiency of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels is affected by its operating
temperature. Having high irradiance produces high electrical output but also
Received Sep 1, 2018 heats up the panel and reducing the panels efficiency. This study investigates
Revised Nov 25, 2018 the effect of cooling solar PV panels using 750g of paraffin wax as phase
Accepted Dec 13, 2018 change material (PCM) applied to the back plate of a solar PV panel. The
experiment is done at Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia. The result is reduction of
Keywords: up to 9.5°C, increase of up to 0.947W or 11.82% of electrical power output
when compared to the panel without any PCM applied. The panel cooled
Panel efficiency with PCM also produced 4.69% more energy.
Phase change material
Solar photovoltaic

Copyright © 2019 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science.

All rights reserved.

Corresponding Author:
Mohd Eqwan bin Mohd Roslan,
Department of Mechanical, College of Engineering,
Universiti Tenaga Nasional,
Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Email: [email protected]

1. INTRODUCTION
Located on the equator, Malaysia is blessed with the abundance of solar irradiance making it
suitable for solar photovoltaic (PV) installation. This has been well exploited with Malaysia giving focus on
installing solar PV systems throughout the country. Up until 2018, solar PV consists of 381.47MW of
installed capacity or 66.42% of the total Renewable Energy technologies installed under the Feed-in-tariff
scheme [1]. Malaysia has also awarded 1.228GW of Large Scale Solar projects and is expected to be fully
operational by 2020 [2]. However, having the abundance of sunlight not only bring usable energy but also
heat that will affect the performance of solar panels. An average decrease of 0.25 – 0.3% solar PV panel
efficiency is estimated for every Celsius increase of solar PV panel temperature, depending on the material
used [3]. This results not only in losses of electrical output but also a waste of space due to less output
obtained per square meter of PV installed. The effect of increasing temperature on solar PV performance can
be seen in Figure 1 [4].
Various methods have been tested in the attempt to cool down panel temperature and increase the
electrical outputs. A recent comprehensive review was done by Siecker et. al. on solar PV cooling
technologies including floating, water spraying, heat sink, forced air and water circulation, phase-change-
materials (PCM), immersion, coating and thermoelectric cooling [5]. The techniques can be generalized into
two, active and passive methods. Active methods require external energy to operate such as using electricity
for pumps and passive methods not requiring any external energy to operate. One of the passive methods is
using PCM to absorb the heat from solar panels. Hasan et. al. has evaluated the use of PCM as a means of
thermal regulation to enhance the performance of building-integrated solar PV and has summarized the
advantages including high heat transfer rate and heat absorption, passive heat exchange with no noise and no

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376  ISSN: 2502-4752

maintenance cost [6]. However, he also noted the disadvantages of using PCM including toxicity, fire safety
issue, corrosiveness and disposal [6].

Figure 1. Effect of temperature on power output of solar PV

This study investigates the effect of using paraffin wax as PCM on the performance of solar PV
performance. The advantage and disadvantage of using paraffin wax are in Table 1[7].

Table 1. Advantages and Disadvantages of PCM [7]

Advantage
Disadvantages
s
Reliable Low thermal conductivity
Predictable No compatibility with plastic containers
Moderately flammable
Non-corrosive
Chemically inert
Stable below 500 0C

2. RESEARCH METHOD
The site selected was at TNB Research Sdn. Bhd., located in Kajang, Malaysia, on an open space
without any shade to avoid any loss of sunlight. The location is selected due to the location of the
measurement equipment being borrowed for this study.
The PCM used for this is paraffin wax, which has a melting point of 30°C. The melting point is
higher than the Standard Testing Condition for solar panels but also lower than the environmental
temperature at the location during noon. The price is also within the budget, costing RM60 for a kg of the
material. The material is expected to lower the temperature of the panel by absorbing the heat from the panel
and changing its state to liquid when the temperature increases above its melting point. 750g of the materials
were used by filling an aluminium container and attaching it to the back of the solar PV panel. The physical
properties of the PCM used in this study is as in Table 2.

Table 2. Physical Properties of PCM Used in this Study

Property Value
Melting Point (℃) 30
Latent Heat (kj/kg) 226
Density (103 kg/ m3) 1.40
Thermal Conductivity (W/m.K) 0.55

Two panels are used, one with PCM attached to the back and one without PCM attached as the
control setup. The panels are placed on a stand to avoid heat trapping beneath the panels. The measurement
devices are connected to the MC4 wires of the panels and together with the multimeter to measure the current
and voltage output of the panels. All the measurement devices are connected to a computer for data reading.
Overall experimental setup consists solar power meter for solar irradiation detection, two set of solar PV
which one of it being attached with PCM and another one is without PCM, two multi-meters for I-V

Indonesian J Elec Eng & Comp Sci, Vol. 14, No. 1, April 2019 : 375 – 380
Indonesian J Elec Eng & Comp Sci ISSN: 2502-4752  377

measurements, wind speed meter for wind velocity measurements together with humidity and the surface
temperature, and last but not least, personal computer for data storage. The schematic diagram for overall
setup is shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Schematic for experiment setup

During the experiment, the temperatures of each panel and the surrounding air temperature are
measured. Also, another important parameter of raw data is collected within 15 minutes in 4- hours’ period of
experiment during the peak hours of optimum radiation of sunlight starting at 11.00pm until 3.00pm o’clock
for three days. These parameters are recorded in the table and are calculated by using a Microsoft Excel.
Then, the data for solar irradiance, current, voltage, power input, power output, solar PV efficiency
as well as the data of the wind speed or velocity to observe any irregular effect for both solar panels are
recorded.
Using the data obtained from the meters, the electrical power output is calculated using the power
formula:

𝑃 =𝐼×𝑉

The panel efficiency, defined as the electrical output over the irradiance from the sun, is calculated
using:
𝑃𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐼×𝑉
𝜂= = × 100%
𝑃𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐸×𝐴

where:
𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝐼 = 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡; 𝑉 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒; 𝐸 = 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑟 ; 𝐴 = 𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
𝑚2

Graphs of panel temperature vs. environment temperature and power output vs. time for panels with
and without PCM. The energy output for both panels are calculated using :

𝐸 = ∑𝑛𝑡=0 𝑃 × 𝑡

Where:

𝑡 = 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒; 𝑛 = 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑙; 𝑃 = 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡;

3. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Figure 3 shows the irradiance recorded for Day 1 until Day 3. The irradiance was recorded starting
11.00 a.m. until 3.00 p.m. on each day. It can be seen that for the period, the irradiance kept increasing with
drops intermittently before decreasing at the end. For Day 2, the irradiance is much more erratic. The sudden
drops can be attributed to passing clouds, which significantly affects the amount of irradiance reaching the
surface. The highest irradiance recorded was on Day 2 at 1 p.m. in the afternoon, reaching a peak of
Performance effect of applying paraffin wax on solar photovoltaic backplate (E. Roslan)
378  ISSN: 2502-4752

1181W/m2. The irradiance on Day 1 of the experiment was relatively low due to the cloudy weather. The
amount of solar irradiance on the solar panel or power input is dependent on the size of the solar panel. The
results for Day 3 will be discussed in detailed in the following section due to having the best weather of the
three days.

Solar Irradiance Recorded for Day 1

until 3
1400
Irradiance (W/m2) 1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1100
1115
1130
1145
1200
1215
1230
1245
1300
1315
1330
1345
1400
1415
1430
1445
1500
Time

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Figure 3. Irradiance recorded for three days

Figure 4 Shows the panel temperature against the environment temperature. The highest panel
temperature recorded was on the panel without PCM at 63.2°C. The lowest is 42.3°C on the panel with PCM.
It can be seen that at the same ambient temperature, the panel with PCM consistently has lower temperature
compared to the panel without PCM. The panel with PCM achieved up to 9.5°C lower temperature compared
to the panel without PCM. These show that the PCM served its objective of lowering the panel temperature.
However, it should be noted that the PCM has its thermal capacity, at which after absorbing enough heat and
changing phase completely, will increase in temperature. In this study, it is not determined whether all the
PCM has absorbed enough heat to completely change phase to liquid.

Panel Temperature vs. Environment

Temperature
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
35.7
37.1
37.1
37.7
36.5
35.2
35.7
37.2
35.7
34.7
37.3
36.5
37.7
36.5
38.1
37.2
38.1

With PCM Without PCM

Figure 4. Panel temperatures vs. environment temperatures

Figure 5 shows the power outputs for both panels throughout the data collection time. Except for the
first point of time, panel with PCM consistently produce higher power output compared to the panel without

Indonesian J Elec Eng & Comp Sci, Vol. 14, No. 1, April 2019 : 375 – 380
Indonesian J Elec Eng & Comp Sci ISSN: 2502-4752  379

PCM. The highest power output difference is at 0.947W or 11.82% more power output for the panel with
PCM compared to without PCM, occurring at 1430.

Power Output vs. Time

10.000
9.000
8.000
Power Output (W) 7.000
6.000
5.000
4.000
3.000
2.000
1.000
0.000
1100
1115
1130
1145
1200
1215
1230
1245
1300
1315
1330
1345
1400
1415
1430
1445
1500
Time

With PCM Without PCM

Figure 5. Power output of panels vs. time of day

Table 3 shows the comparison of energy production between the solar panel with paraffin wax as
PCM applied at the backplate of solar PV panel for cooling and without PCM. For four hours each day for
three days, the energy production for panel with PCM is 90.403Wh compared to 86.353Wh for the panel
without PCM. The panel with PCM cooling its backplate produced 4.051Wh or 4.69% more energy
compared to the one without PCM. This means that for the same amount of area of solar PV installed, a
higher concentration of energy can be produced. This will save land or surface area, or more can be produced
in the same amount of are when PCM is applied for backplate cooling. Depending on the cost of installation
of backplate cooling, it has potential to give additional return for the energy sold to the grid either through
feed-in-tariff or net-energy-metering, hence lowering its payback period or increasing its ROI. For
commercial or residential application, a better design process of applying the backplate cooling method is
needed, which is not covered in this research. In the case of this project, the cost of applying the PCM is
37.5% of the panel alone, without inverters and wiring cost typical with residential and commercial
installation. If included, the percentage cost of PCM application will be lower. The optimal amount of PCM
is also not evaluated in this experiment.

Table 3. Total Energy Produced

Energy Produced (Wh)
Day
With PCM Without PCM
1 24.239 23.5623
2 32.4965 30.7097
3 33.6675 32.0806
Total 90.403 86.353

4. CONCLUSION
Using PCM to absorb heat from the solar panel backplate affects the temperature of the panel by
cooling it down, hence decreasing the temperature and producing higher electrical output, up to 11.82%
higher power output. Throughout the four hours for three days, the panel with PCM produces 4.051Wh more
energy compared to the panel without PCM. This translates into 4.69% more energy. Future study could
include the heat transfer study the determine the optimal quantity of PCM to be used and cost benefit analysis
to determine whether the cost of installing PCM is justified by the additional energy produced.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to acknowledge TNB Research Sdn. Bhd. for providing the equipment and space for
the experiment.

Performance effect of applying paraffin wax on solar photovoltaic backplate (E. Roslan)
380  ISSN: 2502-4752

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Indonesian J Elec Eng & Comp Sci, Vol. 14, No. 1, April 2019 : 375 – 380