Alleviating Operating Temperature of High Concentration Solar Cell by Active Cooling

摘要

It is well know that the highest possible solar cell efficiency is achieved by multijunction based concentrating solar cells. However, due to very high solar flux at the solar cell region, the operating temperature of the solar cell becomes very high which leads to negative power coefficient. In this work, a heat transfer model for multijunction concentrating solar cell system has been developed. The solar cell made of GalnP, GaAs and Ge with active aluminium back plate and anti-reflected glass plate was modeled in this work. To alleviate the operating solar cell temperature an active cooling was used. Water is forced to flow within the ducts behind the solar cell assembly and a finite difference technique has been used to solve the governing equations. In addition, the parametric analysis of the concentrator cell design and the effect of the concentration ratio to the operating temperature of the solar cell have been performed. Results show that maximum cell temperature is extremely dependent on water inlet velocity and channel width more than thicknesses and thermal conductivities of the solar cell holders and accessories. It is also found that the thermal conductivity and the thickness of the solar cell assembly have small effect compared to that of the fluid properties of the active cooling arrangements.