Water Immersion Cooling of PV Cells in a High Concentration System

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2011

Publication Title

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

Volume

95

Issue

2

First page number:

538

Last page number:

545

Abstract

Temperature control of solar cells at high concentrations is a key issue. Short-term efficiency drop and long-term degradation should be avoided by effective cooling methods. Liquid immersion cooling eliminates the contact thermal resistance of back cooling and should improve cell performance. A 250X dish concentrator with two-axis tracking was utilized to evaluate a new CPV system using de-ionized water for immersion cooling. Time-dependent temperature distributions of the PV module of high power back point-contact cells were measured, as well as the I–V curves. The cooling capacities of the liquid immersion approach are very favorable. The module temperature can be cooled to 45 °C at a 940 W/m2 direct normal irradiance, 17 °C ambient temperature and 30 °C water inlet temperature. The temperature distribution of the module is quite uniform, but the electrical performance of the cell module degrades after a fairly long time immersion in the de-ionized water.

Keywords

BPC solar cell; Concentrator photovoltaic; De-ionized water; Dish system; Liquid immersion cooling; Photovoltaic cells – Cooling; Photovoltaic power systems; Water immersion

Disciplines

Energy Systems | Mechanical Engineering | Oil, Gas, and Energy | Sustainability

Language

English

Permissions

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