Revolutionizing the solar photovoltaic efficiency: a comprehensive review on the cutting-edge thermal management methods for advanced and conventional solar photovoltaics

Abstract

Studies have been conducted to explore innovative performance-enhancing thermal management strategies (PETS) aimed at improving the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) technology and shifting towards a low-carbon economy. Nonetheless, there remain research gaps concerning PETS for PV and PV/T systems because there are still unanswered concerns in the literature regarding the specific details about what PETS technology entails in terms of cooling and the reasons behind the non-commercialization of certain PETS technologies by evaluating the pros and cons of each method. Furthermore, it has not been stated previously whether research on device-based PETS is feasible for conventional PV technology or whether PV materials like perovskites hold potential for future applications. This review not only addressed these important issues regarding PETS systems but also extracted statistical and qualitative data from the recent literature for each PETS method, showing the potential of each technology with respect to the influencing factors, like scale, system size, location, type of PV cell, and environmental factors. Accordingly, it was found that integrating PETS techniques has the potential to improve the solar PV efficiency in the range of 1% to 50%, coinciding with a surface temperature decrease of 1.8 °C to 50 °C in PV panels. The strategies that worked well include spectrum filtering, radiative cooling, jet impingement, and employing perovskite materials. For future research, several key areas are highlighted for new researchers, such as evaluating the long-term viability of each PETS method rather than focusing solely on short-term performance metrics. This includes conducting 4E (energy, exergy, environmental, and economic) analyses under variable experimental conditions throughout the year, which could provide critical insights for advancing the commercialization of PETS methods.