A study on cooling of concentrator photovoltaic cells using CFD

Abstract

Cooling of concentrator photovoltaic cells under high concentration of solar irradiance is one of the major challenges in designing concentrating photovoltaic system (CPV). Apart from the reduction of solar-to-electrical conversion efficiency, the highly excessive thermal energy generated may degrade the CPV and result in permanent damages. In this project, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation has been performed to investigate the effects of different design parameters including inlet velocity, working fluid properties and cooling block geometry on thermal performance of the cooling system.