Improvement the thermal electric performance of a photovoltaic cells by cooling and concentration techniques

Abstract

A photovoltaic (PV) cell converts part of the solar energy impinging on it into electrical energy. The remaining part is converted into heat. This heat inversely affects the efficiency of the solar cell. The effect of the cell temperature on the performance of a PV cell is investigated. The effect on the performance of PV cells of concentrator direction and maximum number of reflectors is also presented. Two PV cell cooling methods are used, direct water-cooling and cooling using a heat pipe technique. It is found that the terminal voltage of the PV cell decreases as the temperature of the cell increases. Using parabolic concentrating collectors (dish) in order to maximize cell output minimizes cell area. PV cells have high output power at lower operating temperatures. The heat pipe cooling technique is the better cooling method. The average cell operating temperature is necessarily rather low in order to maintain a reasonable conversion efficiency.