Performance analysis of a medium concentrated photovoltaic system thermally regulated by phase change material: Phase change material selection and comparative analysis for different climates

•Design of a novel concentrated photovoltaic system with two mono-facial solar cells is presented.•A study of thermal regulation of the designed system using a phase change material is presented.•Impact of properties of phase change material on system’s performance is studied using Artificial Neural Network methods.•Optimal properties of phase change material are determined using parametric analysis.•Performance of the system with optimal phase change material is investigated for semi-arid and oceanic climates. Thermal management of photovoltaic systems is important since their electrical output decreases with the increase in temperature. Thermal regulation of a photovoltaic system using a phase change material is an effective technique, but a careful selection of PCM in terms of its thermophysical properties is essential for its better performance. In this work, performance analysis of a novel medium concentrated photovoltaic system employing two mono-facial polycrystalline cells is carried out. The system is thermally regulated with a phase change material. An experimentally validated finite element-based coupled optical, thermal, and electrical model is used to analyze the system’s performance. The impact of the thermophysical properties of a PCM such as melting temperature, thermal conductivity, and heat of fusion on the thermal regulation of the system is studied using artificial neural networking methods. The optimum thermophysical properties of the PCM are determined using parametric analysis for the ambient temperatures ranging between 25 and 50 °C and a concentration ratio of 20×. Moreover, the performance of the system is analyzed using the optimum PCM for the semi-arid weather conditions of Lahore, Pakistan and the optimum PCM for oceanic weather conditions of Waterford, Ireland. It is found that the melting temperature, thermal conductivity, and heat of fusion of the PCM have a linearly indirect relationship with the temperature of the photovoltaic system while the ambient temperature has a linearly direct relationship with the photovoltaic system’s temperature. The melting temperature of a PCM should be 10–15 °C higher than the ambient temperatures up to the ambient temperature of 40 °C. The melting temperature of a PCM was found to be 5 – 10 °C higher than the ambient temperatures for ambient temperatures greater than 40 °C. The required thermal conductivity of a PCM increases with the increase in ambient temperature ranging from 10 to 12 Wm-