Thermal characterization of concentrated solar absorbance using resistive heaters

Thermal management of concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) is necessary in order to optimize cell performance and prevent thermal damage. In order to evaluate the performance of cooling methods, physical simulations of cell heating are used to reproduce the thermal profile without the need of a high flux solar simulator or actual cells. Through using resistive heaters built into the same geometry as a CPV module, cooling system designs can be tested achieving similar power distributions as those predicted through multiphysics modeling. Further, the physical model allows for the testing of thermal and solar power limits and performance in a range of non-ideal condition.