Designing and Performance Evaluation of a Novel Hybrid Concentrating Thermal Photovotaic system

Abstract

Concentrating sunlight and focussing it on smaller sized solar cells increases the device’s power output per unit area. However, this process tends to extend the photovoltaic cell temperature considerably and has the potential to compromise system reliability. Adding a device system to manage this temperature rise, can improve the electrical performance whilst simultaneously providing a further source of coldness heat. In this study the performance of a photovoltaic concentrator system with thermal extraction system was conceptualised and evaluated. An experimental analysis was performed employing a first-generation prototype consisting of 5 units of (CCPC) that is cross compound parabolic concentrators connected to heat extraction unit. A rotating table was used as experimental apparatus to evaluate the optical performance of the system, as a function of its angular positions to duplicate the motion of sun. In this research paper design performance parameter for the photovoltaic concentrator system with thermal extraction solar collector was presented and discussed. This work also provides a technique to effectively calculate the system performance, as a function of the orientation-dependant electrical characterisation parameter data.