Proceedings of the 27th National and 5th International ISHMT-ASTFE Heat and Mass Transfer Conference December 14-17, 2023, IIT Patna, Patna-801106, Bihar, India
Thermal Analysis of Effect of Thermal Emissivity Enhancement on Cooling of Photovoltaic Solar Cell: A Numerical Study
Abstract
In photovoltaic solar cells (PVC), a significant amount of
irradiated solar energy is transformed into waste heat due to
parasitic absorption of sub-bandgap photons. This waste heat
increases the photovoltaic solar cell operating temperature
which has an unfavourable impact on both its efficiency as well as its lifespan. Therefore, various active cooling techniques have been developed for thermal management of photovoltaic solar cells, but these techniques often consume significant power and can't be readily implemented. In recent days, radiative cooling of photovoltaic solar cell has attracted
attention. In this paper, the impact of enhancement of thermal
emissivity of top and bottom layer of photovoltaic solar cell
on the maximum operating temperature of photovoltaic solar cell has been analysed by performing thermal analysis using numerical techniques. The thermal simulation results shows that enhancement of thermal emissivity has a significant impact in the reduction of maximum operating temperature which in-turn results in increased efficiency and lifespan. The simulation results show that with the thermal emissivity value of 0, the maximum operating temperature in photovoltaic solar cell is obtained to be 72.1°C and with the thermal emissivity
value equal to 1, the maximum operating temperature in photovoltaic solar cell is found to be 55.1°C. Hence, there is a decrease of 17°C in maximum operating temperature of the PVC. Similarly, with enhancement in thermal emissivity from 0-0.25, 0.25-0.5, 0.5-0.75 and 0.75-1, the maximum temperature reduction is observed to be 3.9°C, 4°C, 4°C and 5.1°C respectively.