Thermal management and overall performance of a high concentration PV

Abstract

An advanced thermal management approach for HCPV systems is demonstrated in this manuscript, proposing the concept of efficient heat recovery at ultra high concentration ratios by collecting the heat on a high temperature level. With the availability of this low grade heat, the efficiency of the HCPV system is increased further as the 'waste' heat is supplied to different thermal consumers engaging in thermal desalination or adsorption cooling processes. To asses the value of the concept, we have estimated the economic value of heat with regard to its consumer and observed that this differs from its thermodynamic value. This valuable input is was used to determine the overall generated value of a dual output system as a function of the operation temperature, where we have actively demonstrated a superior performance of the HCPVT. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.