Analysis of Water Cooling of CPV Cells Mounted on Absorber Tube of a Parabolic Trough Collector

Abstract

In the present paper, an analytical approach has been developed and presented to estimate the thermal performance of multi-junction solar panel under high concentration with liquid cooling on both sides of the panel. For such system, the receiver of parabolic collector is modified to incorporate solar cells. A long panel of flexible solar cells is mounted on the outer side of circular receiver. The water is allowed to flow from inside as well as outside of receiver, thus reducing the temperature of the panel significantly. Analytical model is developed and thermal analysis has been carried out using MATLAB (vR2012a). The thermal model predicts the temperature variation of the cell along its length, which given the improved efficiency of the panel. To validate the proposed model, the simulation is performed in COMSOL (v5.1). The results show that temperature of the liquid can be maintained up-to 85°C, thus reducing the temperature of panel from initial temperature (without liquid cooling) of above 134°C, under stagnant air in the annulus conditions. The results obtained are within the close approximation. The future scope would include the experimental validation of the proposed system.