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Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy / Volume 4 / Issue 1 / SPECIAL TOPIC: SELECTED PAPERS FROM THE PHOTOVOLTAIC TECHNICAL CONFERENCE, AIX EN PROVENCE, FRANCE, 2011

J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 011601 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3683513 (7 pages)

Thermal model for an early prototype of concentrating photovoltaic for active solar panel initiative system

Sendhil Kumar Natarajan1, Matty Katz2, and Tapas Kumar Mallick1

1Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University; Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom
2Solecta Ltd, 8 HaEshel Street, P.O.B 3016, Caesarea 38900, Israel

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(Received 26 April 2011; accepted 27 December 2011; published online 8 February 2012)

In this paper, three dimensional thermal model is presented for an early prototype of novel concentrating PV design for active solar panel initiative system using ANSYS, CFX package. The system consists of series of Fresnel lens for 36 × 6 series-parallel configuration solar cells, bottom encapsulation layer, and back plate. Fresnel lens is placed at the top of the system. Each Fresnel lens has a thickness of 3 mm and dimension of 10 × 60 mm dimensions. In order to protect the lens from the ambient conditions, protective glass plate is used just above the lens. Each solar cell is 0.25 mm thickness and dimension of 2 × 60 mm, located at the base of the system. The system concentration ratio is 5×. The solar cells are placed along the focal line of the Fresnel lens. Thermally conductive adhesive thickness of 1 mm is placed at the bottom and side of the solar cells. In the present model, only three Fresnel lens and solar cells arrangement have considered. To reduce the solar cell temperature, the five numbers of fins are used at the base of the 5 mm back plate. Solar radiation of 1000 W/m2 is considered and absorption coefficient of 15% of the lens, glass plate, and optical frame is also considered in the present model. Based on the present model, the temperatures of the different components are predicted for focal lengths of 41 mm, 33 mm, 25 mm, and 5 mm. It is observed that the variations of the focal length abruptly change the fluid motion between the lens and the solar cells, as a result, the operating solar cell temperature first increases and then decreases.

© 2012 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. GEOMETRY DESCRIPTIONS
  3. MODELLING PROCEDURE
    1. Assumptions
  4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
  5. CONCLUSIONS

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KEYWORDS, PACS, and IPC

Keywords

absorption coefficients, lenses, solar cells

PACS

International Patent Classification (IPC)

  • H01L27/142

    Energy conversion devices

  • H02N6/00

    Generators in which light radiation is directly converted into electrical energy

  • H01L31/04

    Adapted as conversion devices

  • G02B3/00

    Simple or compound lenses

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3683513

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1941-7012 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

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