CONCENTRATED PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM WITH A COOLING COMPONENT TO EXTRACT THERMAL ENERGY -THERMAL MODELING

Date

2024-8-29

Author

Tunçel, Bilge

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With the increase in the efficiency of the new generation photovoltaic solar cells, electrical power production from concentrated sunlight has become more competitive, and research and development of Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) systems has gained momentum. In CPV systems, high intensity radiation caused by concentration heats the photovoltaic cells to high temperatures, thus causing a reduction in electrical efficiency due to a drop in open-circuit voltage. To remedy the efficiency loss, a thermal cooling component can be integrated to CPV systems that can also produce heat to be utilized for other purposes. Such hybrid designs are named Concentrated Photovoltaic Thermal systems. Parabolic trough collectors are line focusing concentrated systems, and one of the most established technologies on solar heat production. In this study, a novel Parabolic Trough Photovoltaic Thermal (PTPV-T) system integrating high efficiency Si photovoltaic cells is investigated. To this aim, a two-stage modelling is implemented. A local model where the heat transfer phenomena in a small section of the PTPV-T system receiver is investigated, is established. At this stage, the PTPV-T system is modelled in COMSOL Multiphysics with inputs from the system and varying environmental conditions. Then, the results from the local model are integrated to a global model where output of a large scale PTPV-T plant is calculated for different conditions. The results of the global model will provide insights to large scale PTPV-T plant performances. The performance estimates are aimed to contribute to rapid techno-economic feasibility analyses of PTPV-T systems.

Subject Keywords

Parabolic Trough Photovoltaic Thermal Systems, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Computational Heat Transfer, Thermal Modeling

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/111332

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis