Cooling concentrator photovoltaic systems using various configurations of phase-change material heat sinks

Abstract

A new hybrid concentrator photovoltaic-phase change material system is developed to attain rapid thermal dissipation by enhancing the typically low thermal conductivity of phase change materials. The developed system includes four different configurations of phase change material heat sinks: single cavity, three-parallel cavity, five-parallel cavity, and three-series cavity configuration. Furthermore, nine different pattern arrangements of phase change materials are studied. A comprehensive two-dimension model of photovoltaic layers integrated with phase change material heat sink is developed to predict the transient temperature variation at different concentration ratios of 10 and 20. The model is numerically simulated and validated with the available experimental data; the heat sink configurations with three and five parallel cavities are found to significantly reduce the solar cell temperature compared to the single cavity and three-series cavity heat sink configurations. Furthermore, the use of a five-parallel cavity heat sink is found to greatly enhance temperature uniformity of the solar cell. Substantial enhancement in temperature uniformity is also observed with different pattern arrangements of the phase change materials using the three-parallel cavity configuration. These findings can help identify the optimal configuration of heat sinks and pattern arrangements of phase change materials in order to achieve higher performance with concentrator photovoltaic systems.