Thermal Characterization and Management of Commercially Available Photovoltaic Cells

Abstract

The solar simulator already present in SMME has been redesigned to study the electrical performance of photovoltaic cells with variations in light intensity and temperature, and effect of different thermal management methodologies on efficiency and power output of solar cells. A parabolic reflector has been used with light source along the focal line of parabola to achieve maximum uniformity of light intensity on the targeted plane. Light intensity was measured and it has been found that light intensity can be varied in a range of 800 W/m2 to 2500 W/m2 with non-uniformity less than 10%. Hence it lies in the class C of solar simulators. The performance parameters of a solar cell can be determined using a current-voltage curve tracing equipment. The cell temperature at the irradiated surface is measured using an AMG 8833 sensor which is an infrared temperature measuring sensor. The temperature at the dissipative surface of the cell is measured using thermocouples. The effect of temperature variation on the efficiency and maximum power of various kinds of PV cells is studied and to mitigate the depreciative effect of increase in temperature on the electrical performance of cell, different thermal management methodologies such as fins and phase change material are used. With application of fins and phase change material, significant improvement in the performance of solar cells was recorded. Poly crystalline cells show the maximum efficiency and power output per unit area and at light intensity of 1000 W/m^2 the recorded improvement in efficiency was from 10.02 % to 21.81 % in case of poly-crystalline A type cells using phase change material as a passive cooling methodology.