# Computational Modeling of Passive and Active Cooling Methods to Improve PV Panels Efficiency
## 4 Conclusions  
Air currents through the solar panel play a very important role for natural (passive) convection models, becoming useful tools for reducing high temperatures due to their turbulent characteristics. The standard k-\(\epsilon\) model performed satisfactorily in the COMSOL Multiphysics software when evaluating mass air flow, due to the behavior of the simulations and the computational costs, which is in line with results obtained in previous turbulence analysis studies [25] and passive cooling strategies for solar panels [26].  
Regarding the performance of the three evaluated solar panels (passive, active, and hybrid), it could be shown that the hybrid panel presented better performance with a greater decrease in operating temperature and increase in output power. With this method, it was possible to reduce the operating temperature by 17.24 \({}^{\circ}\)C on average, while with the active methods, reductions of 15.01 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 4.46 \({}^{\circ}\)C were obtained, respectively.  
It is worth mentioning the decrease in temperature obtained with the passive model and the increase in the output power. Although this model presented lower efficiency by reducing the operating temperature by 4.46 \({}^{\circ}\)C and increasing the power by 4.65 W on average, it can be easily applicable in some solar installations. These results were obtained with solar panels modeled with a layer of silicon and one of glass, without considering the support structure [26], in order to reduce computation times.  
There remains a gap between laboratory prototypes and industrial applications. The tests performed in this project showed that it is possible to increase the electrical production of a photovoltaic solar panel, however, a cost analysis was not implemented. This is an important factor for the future implementation of practical applications. However, water cooling is still an attractive solution to mitigate the thermal effects in photovoltaic panels. The capacity of this method can be improved if the panel can be cooled with water to temperatures below ambient temperature, but the application of this mechanism will depend on the needs to be required in the installation.  
Conceptualization, J.S.O., C.R.-A. and G.E.E.S.; formal analysis, C.P.-H. and E.A.Z.-G.; investigation, C.P.-H., E.A.Z.-G., J.S.O. and C.R.-A.; writing--original draft preparation, C.P.-H., C.R.-A. and J.S.O.; project administration, G.E.E.S., C.R.-A. and J.S.O. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding. The APC was funded by Vicerrectoria de Investigacion of the Universidad del Magdalena.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Time** & \begin{tabular}{c} **Diff. Std.—Perf.** \\ **Panel (W)** \\ \end{tabular} & \
\begin{tabular}{c} **Diff. Std.—Act. Panel** \\ **Wat. Amb. T. (W)** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Diff. Hyb.—Act. Panel** \\ **Wat. [PERSON]. T. (W)** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline
10:00 & 3.68 & 8.39 & 9.63 \\
11:00 & 3.63 & 10.7 & 12.06 \\
12:00 & 5.55 & 23.63 & 25.22 \\
13:00 & 4.61 & 22.29 & 24.36 \\
14:00 & 5.64 & 18.45 & 20.43 \\
15:00 & 4.76 & 14.29 & 15.81 \\ Prom. & 4.65 & 16.29 & 17.92 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 12: Differences between the output power of the solar panels evaluated.