A Combination of Concentrator Photovoltaics and Water Cooling System to Improve Solar Energy Utilization

In this paper, concentrator photovoltaics (CPVs) were used to integrate the extraction of light energy and thermal energy. The water cooling system that is proposed in this paper provides effective cooling by circulating cold water to remove heat in the photovoltaics. The experimental results were subsequently analyzed and compared with the power generation efficiency of the examined photovoltaics. The use of a water-circulation cooling system improves the power capacity of the photovoltaics by 2%-15% and enhances the power generation efficiency of the photovoltaics by 2.29%-3.37%. Through the combined application of photovoltaic and thermal technologies, the total energy of the overall system can be improved by 37%-59% even after accounting for the energy consumption of the cooling system. As a result, environmental protection, energy savings, and an increase in the efficiency of sunlight utilization can be achieved. Finally, a neural network was used to optimize this increase in efficiency.