Experimental Study on the Heat Dissipation of Photovoltaic Panels by Spiral Coil Cold Plates

Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) systems are a technology designed to simultaneously convert solar energy into both electrical and thermal energy. The overall conversion efficiency of these systems can be significantly enhanced by effectively cooling the photovoltaic (PV) module. To this end, this paper presents a comparative experimental study of a PV panel under three distinct configurations: operating with a no cold plate, with an ordinary cold plate, and with a spiral coil cold plate. The system’s photo-thermoelectric efficiency was evaluated by measuring key parameters, including the PV panel’s surface temperature, electrical power output, and the water tank temperature. The results indicate that the spiral coil configuration demonstrated a marked superiority in temperature regulation over the baseline case, achieving a maximum temperature reduction of 13.8 °C and an average reduction of 10.74 °C. Furthermore, a stable temperature drop exceeding 10 °C was maintained for 74.07% of the experimental duration. When compared to the ordinary cold plate, the spiral coil configuration continued to exhibit superior performance, delivering maximum and average temperature drops of 3.6 °C and 2.16 °C, respectively, while sustaining a cooling advantage of over 2 °C for 66.67% of the test period. These findings conclusively demonstrate that the spiral coil cold plate is the most effective configuration for enhancing the system’s overall performance.