Abstract

This paper presents the experimental investigation of a novel cross-compound parabolic concentrator (CCPC). For the first time, a CCPC module was designed to simultaneously work as an electricity generator and collect the thermal energy present in the module which is generated due to the incident irradiation. This CCPC module consists of two regions: an absorber surface atop the rig and a reflective region below that to reflect the irradiation onto the photovoltaic (PV) cell, coupled together to form an absorptive/reflective CCPC (AR-CCPC) module. A major issue in the use of PV cells is the decrease in electrical conversion efficiency with the increase in cell temperature. This module employs an active cooling system to decrease the PV cell temperature, optimizing the electrical performance and absorbing the heat generated within the module. This system was found to have an overall efficiency of 63%, which comprises the summation of the electrical and thermal efficiency posed by the AR-CCPC module.

Highlights

  • One of the major concerns of development is the difficulties caused by the alarming increase in the energy crisis

  • The coolant was used simultaneously to reduce the temperature of the solar cells and to collect the heat absorbed by the upper absorbent surfaces of the AR-cross-compound parabolic concentrator (CCPC) module

  • It is evident that an increase in cell temperature leads to a drop in efficiency and, an active cooling mechanism must be installed to. These results extensively address the need for an active cooling mechanism, as such a mechanism can aid in the cooling of the PV cell, maintaining the PV cell at an ideal electrical conversion efficiency and absorption of the heat collected by the absorber surfaces in the form of thermal energy for later usage

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Summary

Introduction

One of the major concerns of development is the difficulties caused by the alarming increase in the energy crisis. Sellami and Mallick [9] developed a MATLAB code for a 3D ray trace, which showed that for a cross-compound concentrator with a concentration ratio of 3.6, about 50 times the energy of the incident sun rays from the optical flux distribution lies on the exit aperture This concentrated energy in the form of heat leads to an increase in the temperature of the PV cells. Developed a MATLAB code for a 3D ray trace, which showed that for a cross-compound concentrator with a concentration ratio of 3.6, about 50 times the energy of the incident sun rays from the optical flux distribution lies on the exit aperture This work addressed the effect of the angle of incidence on the characteristics of the concentrator

Model Design
Experimental Setup
Results andabsorber
AR-CCPC Performance with Cooling
Power by
Overall System Efficiency
Conclusions
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