Active cooling of solar plants after the heatwaves

After the record heat waves of the northern summer and the performance losses that came with them, active cooling for solar arrays remains a difficult market. pv magazine notes that developers are more interested in preventing temperature-related losses, but that in most cases the numbers still do not add up.

The IEA-PVPS report T13-32:2025, Optimisation of Photovoltaic Systems for Different Climates, published in June 2025, notes that tropical regions typically show higher degradation rates than colder climates, and that currently available warranty information does not reflect actual degradation rates by climate.

That is the side the cooling business case usually leaves out. The assessment compares the cost of the system with this year's generation gain. If heat also accelerates degradation, part of the benefit sits at the end of the module's life rather than in this month's yield.

For operators in Brazil, the practical decision is not to buy cooling now, it is to measure: instrument the modules, log cell temperature and compare the real degradation curve with the warranty one. With that data the business case stops being an estimate and starts showing both sides of the gain.