Thermal Performance of a Solar Concentrating Photovoltaic Module with Spiral Mini Channel Heat Sink

Abstract

Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) power generation is one of the attractive choices for efficient utilization of solar energy due to its high cogeneration efficiency. The increase in temperature of solar CPV cell significantly reduces the performance. The efficiency of a CPV system can be improved by introducing effective thermal management or cooling system. In this paper, a new spiral mini channel heat sink with rectangular cross section is developed and its performance is numerically analysed using commercial CFD software ANSYS 14. The mini-channels provided high heat transfer over cell surface area and resulted in lower pressure drop. The coolant outlet temperature rise across the mini-channel is estimated as 343K in CPV module of 300 X 300 mm2 and with a pressure drop of 8.043 k Pa at a flow rate of 0.16 liter/s. Based on numerical simulations, it is found that the optimum configuration of micro-channel with 4mm width and height of 20mm, having higher figure of merit.