Temperature effects on the performance of dense array concentrator photovoltaic system

Abstract

The performance of dense-array concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) is studied in detail by considering temperature distribution pattern generated from a water-cooled copper cooling block. Using water flow rate 0.400 kg/s and inlet temperature 30°C, the temperature distribution is simulated and the temperature values are used as a means to predict each CPV cell's operating temperature. It is observed that a solar cell located at the central region of the array experiences the highest temperature of 58.3°C, while CPV cells located furthest to the center are operating at 7°C lower than the center region cell. For comparison purpose, we also investigated the effect of uniform temperature distribution for all the cells at 55.2°C. It is found that the output power varies by less than 1W compared to the case of non-uniform temperature distribution where each solar cell is experiencing a different temperature value. On the other hand, the output power increases to 462.70 W when the array temperature is reduced to 40°C, while the output power dropped to 418.60 W when the array temperature is increased to 100°C. Through better understanding of temperature effects to dense array CPV performance, a suitable cooling system can be designed to minimize power loss.