Transmissive microfluidic active cooling for concentrator photovoltaics

Kazi Islam, Brian Riggs, Yaping Ji, John Robertson, Christopher Spitler, Vince Romanin, Daniel Codd and Matthew D. Escarra

Applied Energy, 2019, vol. 236, issue C, 906-915

Abstract: We present the design, fabrication, characterization, and field testing of transmissive active cooling for use in a point-focus spectrum-splitting hybrid concentrator photovoltaics/thermal (CPV/T) system. Seven parallel-path 100 μm thick microchannels are made using polydimethylsiloxane and attached to a CPV module containing a 6 × 6 array of 5.5 mm transmissive CPV cells on a sapphire substrate. Water is flowed through the microchannels to actively cool the CPV cells. The total transmittance of the CPV module reduces by 5.2% with the addition of the active cooling microchannels, relative to the module transmission with no microchannels. The peak cell temperature is measured as 69 °C with a thermal resistance of 9.35 K/W at 157 suns, well below the 110 °C maximum allowed temperature. A maximum flowrate of 16.7 g/s is achieved from a 13 psi pressure drop across the microchannels and manifold assembly. The flow characteristics within each microfluidic channel show maximum fluid velocity of 4.3 m/s (Re = 953) with a calculated convection coefficient of 1.7 × 104 W/m2 K (Nu = 5.36). The CPV/T module and cooling system performance was validated during week-long outdoor tests under varying solar conditions up to 250 suns using a 2.7 m2 parabolic dish collector mounted to a two-axis tracking system.

Keywords: CPV; CSP; Hybrid CPV/T; Active cooling; Microfluidics; Spectrum-splitting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.12.027

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