Abstract
Concentrating photovoltaic has a major challenge due to the high temperature raised during the process which reduces the efficiency of the solar cell. A multi-layered microchannel heat sink technique is considered more efficient in terms of heat removal and pumping power among many other cooling techniques. Thus, in the current work, multi-layered microchannel heat sink is used for concentrating photovoltaic cooling. The thermal behavior of the system is experimentally and numerically investigated. The results show that in extreme heating load of 30 W/cm2 with heat transfer fluid flow rate of 30 mL/min, increasing the number of layers from one to four reduces the heat source temperature from 88.55 to 73.57 °C. In addition, the single layered MLM heat sink suffers from the highest non-uniformity in the heat source temperature compared to the heat sinks with the higher number of layers. Additionally, the results show that increasing the number of layers from one to four reduces the pressure drop from 162.79 to 32.75 Pa.
Highlights
Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology has gained much more attention than the conventional photovoltaic due its competitive cost [1]
Eighty percent of the concentrated sunlight is absorbed by the solar cell, only a small portion is converted to electrical energy, and the remaining is converted to thermal energy which causes an increase of the solar cell temperature [2,3]
Studies show that the temperature effect on the solar cell efficiency depends on its type for instance the output power declines in an order of 0.65%/◦ C, 0.4%/◦ C and 0.248%/◦ C for crystalline solar cells, thin-film cell and triple-junction solar cells respectively [5]
Summary
Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology has gained much more attention than the conventional photovoltaic due its competitive cost [1]. A study showed that the solar cell temperature could reach 1400 ◦ C under 500 concentration ratio if it is fully insulated [4]. The excessive temperature causes a long-term degradation of the solar cell if it exceeds the maximum limit [6]. Temperature distribution on the surface of a solar cell due to the non-uniform illumination on the surface is another parameter that affects the solar cell efficiency [7]. This implies the importance of removing the generated heat efficiently
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