Design, Fabrication & Testing of Cooling System for Multi-Junction CPV Cells

Solar energy is a renewable and clean source of energy and the easiest to utilize among all the other renewable resources available. Majority of the solar energy harnessing firms use panels made of a single junction solar cell for conversion of solar energy to electrical energy. With the advent of modern technology, multi-junction photovoltaic cells are made available. The multi-junction photovoltaic cells contain multiple P-N junctions within them. Due to these multiple junctions, heating of the cell is common which decreases the cell's efficiency. This is more prominent in certain concentrated photovoltaic systems and also may lead to permanent damage to the cell. The paper describes a cooling system design, which consists of a block on which the solar cell is to be mounted and water is made to flow in this block when the temperature of the cell exceeds beyond the maximum allowable temperature of the cell (60°C - 70°C), this temperature is measured by an infrared thermometer. The cooling system developed helps regulate the cell temperature and also assists in efficient working of the cell.