Solar energy is readily available worldwide; solar cells may hold the key to solving the world's power issue. One of the primary issues that has obstructed the panels' ability to produce electricity is the increase in the temperature of photovoltaic panels caused by high solar radiation and ambient temperature. This research represents different cooling techniques for decreasing the operating temperature of a photovoltaic solar panel to keep its efficiency as high as possible. Experimental passive and active cooling investigations are applied to 50 W polycrystalline photovoltaic modules. Active cooling by pure water and two different water-nano concentrations (0.001Al2O3 wt% and 0.01 Al2O3 wt%) are accomplished using serpentine and pancake shapes attached to the back side of the PV panels. Alternatively, fins like heat sinks are used as passive cooling. The thermal and electrical performance of uncooled PV and cooled solar panels was compared to study the effectiveness of each cooling technique. It was found from an investigation that active cooling using water and the two nanofluid concentrations lowered the PV temperature by 28.74%, 31.17% and 35.47% using pancake geometry and by 25.47% of serpentine, respectively. At the same time, the fins reduced the temperature by 9.30%. The module's output power improved by 38.11% overall when 23.58 °C lowered the temperature. Therefore, pancake geometry is more effective than serpentine geometry.