Experimental investigation of passive and forced cooling effects on PV panel performance using perforated fin heat sinks

The performance of photovoltaic (PV) modules decreases significantly at elevated operating temperatures, leading to reduced electrical efficiency and accelerated performance degradation. This study experimentally investigates a cost-effective cooling approach using an aluminum heat sink with perforated tubular fins to enhance convective heat transfer under both natural and forced-airflow conditions. A controlled laboratory solar simulator based on halogen lamps was used to generate irradiance levels ranging from 500 to 1200 W m⁻². The thermal and electrical performance of the PV module was evaluated under three operating conditions: uncooled, natural convection, and forced convection. The results indicate that forced convection achieved the largest temperature reduction, reaching approximately 21 °C compared with the uncooled configuration at high irradiance levels. However, natural convection exhibited slightly higher electrical efficiency at moderate irradiance due to the absence of auxiliary fan power consumption. Thermal imaging analysis further showed that the use of the perforated-fin heat sink significantly reduced temperature gradients across the PV surface, with temperature differences between cooled and uncooled configurations reaching approximately 15–25 °C. Overall, the proposed perforated tubular-fin heat sink demonstrates effective thermal management capability for photovoltaic systems and improves the operating stability of the PV module. Since the experiments were conducted under halogen lamp irradiation in controlled laboratory conditions, further outdoor validation under natural solar radiation is recommended to confirm the practical applicability of the proposed cooling configuration.