The Effect of Cooling Medium on the Temperature of High-Concentrating Multi-Junction Solar Cells using Non-uniform Incident Light

Abstract

Abstract. A numerical model of heat transfer for predicting solar cell temperature in a high concentrating photovoltaic module using non-uniform incident illumination is presented. The PV module, based on a three-junction solar cell with a front contact to the cell,anti-reflected glass coating, and an active aluminum back plate is modeled. The Gaussian distribution is adopted to simulate the irregularity in the incident radiation. The cooling water is enforced to flow inside a rectangular duct behind the solar cell assembly to lower the cell’s operating temperature. The continuity equation, momentum equation, energy equation for the fluid, and energy equations for the solid materials in the solar cell assembly are solved using a numerical marching technique. The effects of the standard deviation of light distribution, position of the maximum radiation on the cell surface, Reynold's number, and concentration ratio on the temperature of the solar cell are illustrated. At moderatevalues of concentration ratio, water wasfound to be an effectivecooling medium in reducing solar cell temperatures to acceptable levels. However, for high concentrations, plainwater-cooling system was unable to cool the solar cell adequately when the system is subjectedto a sharp non-uniformillumination distribution.