Experimental validation of a heat transfer model for concentrating photovoltaic system

In this paper, a three dimensional heat transfer model is presented for a novel concentrating photovoltaic design for Active Solar Panel Initiative System (ASPIS). The concentration ratio of two systems (early and integrated prototype) are 5× and 10× respectively, designed for roof-top integrated Photovoltaic systems. ANSYS 12.1, CFX package was effectively used to predict the temperatures of the components of the both ASPIS systems at various boundary conditions. The predicted component temperatures of an early prototype were compared with experimental results of ASPIS, which were carried out in Solecta – Israel and at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) – Austria. It was observed that the solar cell and lens temperature prediction shows good agreement with Solecta measurements. The minimum and maximum deviation of 3.8% and 17.9% were observed between numerical and Solecta measurements and the maximum deviations of 16.9% were observed between modeling and AIT measurements. Thus, the developed validated thermal model enables to predict the component temperatures for concentrating photovoltaic systems.

► Experimentally validated heat transfer model for concentrating Photovoltaic system developed.
► Predictions of solar cell temperatures for parallactic tracking CPV system for roof integration.
► The ASPIS module contains 2 mm wide 216 solar cells manufactured based on SATURN technology.
► A solar cell temperature of 44 °C was predicted for solar radiation intensity was 1000 W/m2 and ambient temperature was 20 °C.
► Average deviation was 6% and enabled to predict temperature of any CPV system.