Numerical analysis of direct liquid-immersed solar cell cooling of a linear concentrating photovoltaic receiver

Direct liquid immersion cooling of concentrator solar cells is proposed as a solution for receiver thermal management of concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) and hybrid concentrating photovoltaic thermal (CPV-T) systems. A novel receiver incorporating direct liquid-immersed cell cooling has been developed for linear trough CPV and CPV-T systems at ANU. Several potential working fluids have undergone preliminary investigation as candidate immersion liquids in the novel receiver. De-ionised (DI) water has been used as the working fluid in this study. The flow distribution and concentrator solar cell temperature profiles from three-dimensional numerical simulations are presented. The optical concentration ratio, the fluid inlet velocity and fluid flow characteristics, and the inlet fluid temperature have a decisive influence on the concentrator solar cell operating temperature.