Abstract
Cooling of photovoltaic cells is one of the main concerns when designing
concentrating photovoltaic systems. Cells may experience both short-term
(efficiency loss) and long-term (irreversible damage) degradation
due to excess temperatures. Design considerations for cooling systems
include low and uniform cell temperatures, system reliability, sufficient
capacity for dealing with âworst case scenariosâ, and minimal
power consumption by the system. This review presents an overview
of various methods that can be employed for cooling of photovoltaic
cells. It includes the application to photovoltaic cells of cooling
alternatives found in other fields, namely nuclear reactors, gas
turbines and the electronics industry. Different solar concentrators
systems are examined, grouped according to geometry. The optimum
cooling solutions differ between single-cell arrangements, linear
concentrators and densely packed photovoltaic cells. Single cells
typically only need passive cooling, even for very high solar concentrations.
For densely packed cells under high concentrations (4150 suns), an
active cooling system is necessary, with a thermal resistance of
less than 10 4Km2/W. Only impinging jets and microchannels have been
reported to achieve such low values. Two-phase forced convection
would also be a viable alternative.
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