Enhancing the performance of BICPV systems using phase change materials

Abstract

Building Integrated Concentrated Photovoltaic (BICPV) systems have three main benefits for integration into built environments, namely, (i) generating electricity at the point of use (ii) allowing light efficacy within the building envelope and (iii) providing thermal management. In this work, to maintain solar cell operating temperature and improve its performance, a phase change material (PCM) container has been designed, developed and integrated with the BICPV system. Using highly collimated continuous light source, an indoor experiment was performed. The absolute electrical power conversion efficiency for the module without PCM cooling resulted in 7.82% while using PCM increased it to 9.07%, thus showing a relative increase by 15.9% as compared to a non- PCM system. A maximum temperature reduction of 5.2°C was also observed when the BICPV module was integrated with PCM containment as compared to the BICPV system without any PCM containment