Study of automotive radiator cooling system for dense-array concentration photovoltaic system

An automotive radiator is proposed for the heat rejection of the dense-array concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) system. Theoretical modeling on the integration of automotive radiator into the cooling system with a specially designed cooling block has been carried out in details. To verify the feasibility of new proposal, the automotive radiator cooling system has been constructed and tested to effectively lower down the temperature of CPV module in a non-imaging planar concentrator prototype with total reflective area of 4.16 m2 at solar concentration ratio of 377 suns. During the on-site measurement, it has been observed that the conversion efficiency of CPV module has successfully improved from 22.39% to 26.85% when the CPV cell temperature is reduced from 59.4 °C to 37.1 °C.

► Automotive radiator was proposed for the heat rejection of dense-array CPV system.
► Study was done to analyze the performance automotive radiator in heat rejection.
► Field test of new cooling system was done using prototype operated at 377 suns.
► Heat rejection rate for the theoretical result is 91% of the experimental result.
► Electrical conversion efficiency of CPV reduces 0.14% for every 1 °C increment.