Award Date

1-1-2007

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Committee Member

Robert F. Boehm

Number of Pages

102

Abstract

An analysis of the Amonix high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) passive cooling system was performed in order to obtain a better understanding of the present design and identify poor areas of dissipation. Cooling of photovoltaic tells under high intensity solar irradiance is a major concern when designing concentrating photovoltaic systems. Solar tell temperatures increase if the waste heat is not removed causing the cell voltage to decrease lowering the power generated. The concentrator geometry was studied so a model of the HCPV passive cooling system could be generated to analyze the system numerically. In addition to this experiments were conducted in the field and then used to compare with the numerical results. There was less than a 5% difference between both studies indicating that the numerical results were correct. This study provides beneficial information regarding areas of poor circulation with detailed descriptions about the temperature distributions and air velocity.

Keywords

Cells; Concentration; Cooling; Modeling; Passive; Photovoltaic; Systems

Controlled Subject

Mechanical engineering; Force and energy; Environmental engineering

File Format

pdf

File Size

2836.48 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

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