IMMERSION OF COOLING PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS IN HIGHLY CONCENTRATED SOLAR BEAMS

The photons then excite electrons which are absorbed by voltaic cells — photons that exciters electrons have to higher than the band gap energy. The solar heat energy is then converted to solar energy through electron-hole pair thermalization. The chemical energy is after that converted to electrical energy. In the process, electron-hole pair energy is converted to solar energy. There must be requirements to be made for the operation of PV cell Concentrated PV plan of action is less costly since expensive photovoltaic cells area is occupied by the less costly ones which include lenses and mirrors through the same power output is normally attained. A cooling system with minimum health effects and simply designed is developed to reduce the cell damage catastrophe.

The arrangement of PV cells matters a lot in preventing excess heat produced by high solar radiation concentration. (Gibart,2013) Different concentration systems. Single photovoltaic cells arrangement. The arrangement allows for passive cooling. Severally cooling methods have been developed with the aim of reducing heat concentration of PV cells and attaining lower required temperature. The techniques have been developed from simple designs. Jet impingement technique has been used by Royne in cooling of densely packed PV cells under a higher concentration of heat. (ROYN, et, al, 2015) CHAPTER 2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP. The PV is encased with a coolant enclosed in a clear glass pipe. The utmost situation that solar can be exposed to for a while without damage is summarized by the table below.

Maximum insolation 400 kW/㎡ Maximum cell temperature 90˚c The module is supposed to give the real performance as in the table below under the normal condition. Insolation at the receiver surface 250kw/㎡ Allowance insolation variation <8% from the mean Average cell temperature 65˚c Open circuit voltage 72. 2VDC Output power 543w Output voltage 55. A centrifugal pump circulates the coolant. Iron exchange medium allows the exchange of ions between water and metallic pipes. This aids in controlling water resistivity by removing the collected ions. The measurements taken are mass flow rate, water resistance, cells’ voltage, and current and module temperature. Temperature is measured by use of thermocouples; mass flow rate data is collected by use of a turbo meter. The flat tiles make to enable concentration on a flat area instead of a focal point.

This leads to a uniform distribution on a common area. More so, flat tiles can be inclined at different dimension leading to a flux distribution control. PV Module. The module comprises of glass cover and coolant. The temperature will, therefore, be constant regarding PV module surface. The model is advantageous because of the symmetry in the glass pipe, and this reduces computing time. Assumption and boundary conditions. The model is made up of the copper substrate in the glass tube which is encompassed with water. Several assumptions were made to simplify the analysis. Water immersion cooling maintains a better temperature uniformity compared to silicone oil. Pumping water requires less human resources resource compared to copper silicon. More so, silicon has its disadvantages over water; it does not require deionization as water.

To obtain best results, an experiment should be done at the different mass flow, and the results averaged. The main aim of the experiment is to study an effective way of cooling the module and how temperature affects the performance of the module. Most of the heat is dissipated, To minimize this the concept of the hybrid cycle is applied. A refrigerant will be required as working fluid in the hybrid cycle. The arrangement of photovoltaic arrays can be on a linear concentrator. Conclusion. Immersion method is capable of attaining low temperature which is required along the PV surface. doi:10. 1016/j. solener. 040 Boehm, R.  F. , & Boehm, R.  F. Optical and Thermal Analysis for Immersed Cooling of Photovoltaic Cells in a Highly Concentrated Beam.