Experimental study of a self-cooling concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system using thermoelectric modules

Abstract

Compared to flat-plate photovoltaic, concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) has advantages of lower solar cells cost and higher efficiency, but requires a sophisticated cooling system and additional energy to maintain its cooling system. In this study, a novel thermoelectric self-cooling for CPV system was proposed, which integrates thermoelectric module to provide energy for an auto-cooling scheme. The self-cooling CPV system underwent experimental validation, subsequently demonstrating its applicability across a series of numerical cases. Additionally, optimal scheme, transient response and economic performance of the self-cooling technology were discussed. The experimental results showed that temperature of solar cell was reduced from 69.3 °C to 56.6 °C after activating the self-cooling at concentration ratio of 25, irradiation intensity of 1000 W/m2 and ambient temperature of 25 °C, where the open-circuit voltage, output power and efficiency of the solar cell were respectively 2.75 V, 2.31 W and 29 %. Increasing usage of four thermoelectric modules further reduced the temperature to 42.5 °C and elevated the output power to 2.38 W. A conceptual design of 10 kW self-cooling CPV power station was carried out. The results indicated that electric load of self-cooling device could reach 3368 W at concentration ratio of 50 and irradiation intensity of 1000 W/m2, and the self-cooling concept in CPV system could be successfully realized under irradiation intensity ≥600 W/m2 and concentration ratio ≥40. The above data showed that the temperature could be reduced by 39 % through using self-cooling technology. The advantage of CPV power station integrating with thermoelectric self-cooling method over typical passive cooling illustrated the potential of the self-cooling technology.