Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells: Li Zhu, Robert F Boehm, Yiping Wang, Christopher Halford, Yong Sun
Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells: Li Zhu, Robert F Boehm, Yiping Wang, Christopher Halford, Yong Sun
Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells: Li Zhu, Robert F Boehm, Yiping Wang, Christopher Halford, Yong Sun
a r t i c l e in f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 23 December 2009
Received in revised form
2 July 2010
Accepted 24 August 2010
Available online 14 October 2010
Temperature control of solar cells at high concentrations is a key issue. Short-term efciency drop and
long-term degradation should be avoided by effective cooling methods. Liquid immersion cooling
eliminates the contact thermal resistance of back cooling and should improve cell performance. A 250X
dish concentrator with two-axis tracking was utilized to evaluate a new CPV system using de-ionized
water for immersion cooling. Time-dependent temperature distributions of the PV module of high
power back point-contact cells were measured, as well as the IV curves. The cooling capacities of the
liquid immersion approach are very favorable. The module temperature can be cooled to 45 1C at a
940 W/m2 direct normal irradiance, 17 1C ambient temperature and 30 1C water inlet temperature. The
temperature distribution of the module is quite uniform, but the electrical performance of the cell
module degrades after a fairly long time immersion in the de-ionized water.
& 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Liquid immersion cooling
Concentrator photovoltaic
Dish system
De-ionized water
BPC solar cell
1. Introduction
Cooling of the cells is a critical issue when designing
concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems. In these systems, solar
cells under high illuminations will have increases in temperature
with the attendant cell efciency drops, so a reliable heat
dissipation system is needed to cool the cells effectively. For
dishes or heliostat elds that have large point-focus areas, the
receiver generally consists of a multitude of densely packed cells.
Densely packed modules present great problems for cooling
compared to the single cells and linear geometry type CPV
systems. Under high concentrations ( 4150 suns) the densely
packed modules require an active cooling system with a low
thermal resistance. A comprehensive review has been published
by Royne et al. in 2005 [1], which summarized the cooling
technologies for concentrator photovoltaic systems including
those for the densely packed modules. Also, in the review it is
said that only impinging jets and micro-channels have been
reported to achieve low enough thermal resistances for satisfactory cooling performance. Soon after the review Royne et al. [2]
published another paper on impingment cooling and led one
patent on an active cooling approach using this method [3].
Some researchers put forward the idea of submerging bare
cells directly inside a dielectric liquid. Originally the efforts on
liquid immersion concentrated on the possible effects of the
liquid on the cells, whether in the optical or electrical aspects.
0927-0248/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2010.08.037
Besides the patents and papers reviewed in [4], recently more and
more patents in this area have been led. Tanaka [5,6] suggested
using a shallow liquid layer or a gel layer [7] surrounding solar
cells for light trapping and also cell surface wetting. Carcangiu
et al. [8] patented a liquid immersion photovoltaic panel. The
panel uses a liquid-tight chamber to house solar cells immersed in
a poly-dimethylsilicone liquid, which circulates through the inlet
and outlet passages. Ignacio et al. [9] used curved optically
transparent covers to enhance the concentrating effect of the
immersion dielectric liquid. Falbel [10] patented a surrounding
reective surface for a solar cell, which reects back the light rays
which are not absorbed by the solar cell. Besides the liquid and
gel, Cherney et al. [11] even extended the refractive medium to a
solid. Using water as the immersion liquid in [12], panels are
congured with liquid super-concentrators having outwardly
disposed liquid imaging lenses.
Aside from the optical and surface wetting advantages of liquid
immersion, the direct contact between cells and their surrounding
liquid make it possible for a new cooling method to be used for
cells, especially for cells at high concentrations. Eliminating the
thermal resistance of the contact wall between solar cell and uid
of conventional active cooling approaches, which controls the rate
of heat dissipation, the cells could be effectively cooled down for a
desirable sunlight-to-electricity conversion efciency. Wang [13]
has put forward this idea in his patent. Phase change liquids have
been patented by Koehler [14] and Vasilinina et al. [15]. Tange
[16] applied a patent on the sealing structure for direct water
cooling of solar cells. Detailed laboratory experimental as well as
simulation work has been performed by researchers in China, and
considerations have been given to every aspect of this new
L. Zhu et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 538545
2. Experimental
The liquid immersion CPV dish system mainly consists of a
two-axis tracking dish concentrator, a liquid-immersed receiver
and other auxiliary parts. In the following sections detailed
descriptions are given for each main component.
2.1. Dish concentrator
The dish installed at UNLV originated from a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) project, which aimed at building
the rst dish concentrator photovoltaic system in the United
States. The project started in 2003 and ended in 2007 with
valuable outcomes for similar systems. But the key issue
throughout the whole project is the heat dissipation for the
monolithic cells at high concentrations. The dish was designed
and built by the Science Applications International Corporation
(SAIC), which was improved to incorporate the xed focus mirror
facets, DC variable-speed drive motors, a fail-safe fast off-track
539
Fig. 1. Dish concentrator picture and the solar ux prole at the focus point. (a) Mirror facets and (b) solar ux prole.
540
L. Zhu et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 538545
cooling water is inside the shell. The two uids run in a parallel
mode so the warmest DI water at the receiver outlet could
exchange heat with the coldest tap water. The shell has a
diameter of 155.4 mm and the outside diameter of the tube
is 9.5 mm. The pump for circulating the DI water is the model
TE-4-MD-HC 582604 (Little Giant Pump Company) and is a totally
enclosed and thermally protected type. The tap water is ltered
before running into the shell to avoid fouling.
DI water is a good option to use as an immersion medium
because of low viscosity and high thermal capacity, provided that
the cell performance remains stable during water immersion.
Defects will be caused on the cell from varying surface
recombination or polarization when the ion concentration is
high. The DI water was produced by a water purier (OPTION-S
15BP, ELGA LabWater Global Operations) with an outlet resistivity
of 15 MO cm. The resistivity of DI water was controlled using an
ion-exchange column to remove the ions accumulated during
circulation. The resistivity of the DI water is kept at a desired
setpoint during operation by opening a water treatment piping
branch when the resistivity becomes too small. This is done by
owing a portion of the water through an ion-exchange element.
This process continues until the measured resistivity is higher
than the setpoint.
Also, it is very important to protect the cooling equipment and
connections from being exposed directly to the intensied
illumination. Rigid ceramic insulation with binder and metal
shields were installed for this purpose as can be seen in Figs. 3
and 4b.
PLUG
TEE
CELL MODULE
GLASS PIPE
VICTAULIC COUPLING
ADAPTER
BUSHING
STAINLESS STEEL PIPE
L. Zhu et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 538545
V2
541
F1
T1
F2 V4 Filter
T2
Cooling Water
Cooling Water
T4
Heat Exchanger
T3
R
metal shield
datalogger
V7
V9
V8
ion-exchange
column
Drain
Ion-exchange Column
switchbox
V6
HEX
V5
receiver
V1
t1
tx
V3
I-V
Pump
D.I. Water
Fig. 4. (a) Liquid immersion cooling system layout and (b) photo.
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L. Zhu et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 538545
Fig. 6. Interface shown in the computer for data collection and status control.
gives the climate conditions on the test days, which comes from
the site meteorological station and was downloaded from http://
www.nrel.gov/midc/unlv/. As shown, the test days are mostly
sunny and clear, and the DNI during PST 10:30 am and 12:30 pm
is nearly constant and the value is above 900 W/m2. The ambient
temperature and wind speed also does not change signicantly
during test and averages 17.5 1C and 2.1 m/s, respectively.
L. Zhu et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 538545
543
Tr,i and Tr,o used in Table 1 are, respectively, the inlet and outlet
temperatures for the cooling water and DI water. Ta is the ambient
temperature and v is the wind velocity. Vs and Vr are the ow
rates for the cooling source and receiver, respectively. The
uniformity was characterized by the standard deviation of the
temperature values, with All representing all the measured data
and X(T5) representing T5 excluded due to the shadow error.
For the direct cooling method, it is seen that with stronger DNI the
cell module temperature increases but not signicantly. At a DNI
of 985 W/m2 the averaged module temperature is only 46.8 1C
with a uniformity of less than 1.0, clearly showing the favorable
cooling performance of the proposed method.
Fig. 10. Temperature distributions of the cell module.(a) Axial direction and (b) lateral direction.
544
L. Zhu et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 538545
Table 1
Temperature distribution of the cell module under various testing conditions.
Type
DNI
Ta
Vs
Ts,i
Ts,o
Vr
Tr,o
Tr,i
(W/m2)
(oC)
(m/s)
(m3/h)
(1C)
(1C)
(m3/h)
(1C)
(1C)
Testing conditions
801
841
904
959
985
14.62
14.49
15.50
16.40
14.38
1.05
1.06
1.04
1.02
1.02
18.7
19.6
18.7
18.6
18.9
23.9
25.4
24.2
24.9
25.1
2.23
2.23
2.21
2.21
2.23
29.9
32.3
30.5
32.3
32.0
27.8
29.9
28.1
29.8
29.7
Temperature distribution
Lateral direction
T3
42.8
44.0
46.4
47.2
48.3
1.73
1.32
0.40
0.90
2.85
Axial direction
Uniformity
T6
T7
T2
T3
T4
T5
43.0
44.2
48.2
48.5
48.8
41.4
42.6
45.5
46.2
47.6
43.8
45.1
47.6
48.7
49.2
42.8
44.0
46.4
47.2
48.3
41.6
42.7
44.8
46.1
46.4
36.1
36.8
39.0
40.0
39.4
X(T5)
Fig. 11. Cooling capacity of the DI water immersion arrangement. (a) Inlet and outlet temperature and (b) cooling capacity.
9
8
7
Amps (A)
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
10
20
30
40
Volts
50
60
70
80
Fig. 12. Cell module performance during tests. (a) IV curve and (b) other module parameters variation.
0.9
1.0
1.3
1.1
1.0
All
2.6
2.8
3.1
2.9
3.4
L. Zhu et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 538545
method by liquid immersion has great capacity for heat dissipation for the solar cells under high concentrations.
545
5. Conclusions
A DI water immersion cooling method was applied to a dish
high concentration PV system to keep a submerged cell module at a
low working temperature. The real-time temperature distributions
of the cell module were measured as well as its electrical
performance. The experimental results show that the module
temperature peaks at 49 1C and the uniformity of the temperature
distribution is less than 4 1C at 250 suns with the DNI above
900 W/m2, cooling medium temperature inlet temperature of
approximately 31 1C and ambient temperature around 17 1C. The
module temperature distribution is quite uniform. The calculated
cooling capacity using the experimental data is so prominent that
the overall convective heat transfer coefcient is about 6000
W/m2 K. However, the module performance is stable at rst, but
then degrades even at a constant resistivity of 5 MO cm. It is
assumed that either the low ion concentration or the electrolytic
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