Transmissive microfluidic active cooling for concentrator photovoltaics

Islam, Kazi; Riggs, Brian; Ji, Yaping; Robertson, John; Spitler, Christopher; Romanin, Vince; Codd, Daniel; Escarra, Matthew D.

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.12.027

Transmissive microfluidic active cooling for concentrator photovoltaics

Journal Article · Mon Dec 17 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Applied Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.12.027· OSTI ID:1613609

^[1]; Riggs, Brian ^[2]; Ji, Yaping ^[2]; Robertson, John ^[2]; Spitler, Christopher ^[3]; Romanin, Vince ^[4]; Codd, Daniel ^[3]; Escarra, Matthew D. ^[2]

Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA (United States); DOE/OSTI
Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA (United States)
Univ. of San Diego, San Diego, CA (United States)
Otherlab, San Francisco, CA (United States)

We present the design, fabrication, characterization, and field testing of transmissive active cooling for use in a point-focus spectrum-splitting hybrid concentrator photovoltaics/thermal (CPV/T) system. Seven parallel-path 100 μm thick microchannels are made using polydimethylsiloxane and attached to a CPV module containing a 6 × 6 array of 5.5 mm transmissive CPV cells on a sapphire substrate. Water is flowed through the microchannels to actively cool the CPV cells. The total transmittance of the CPV module reduces by 5.2% with the addition of the active cooling microchannels, relative to the module transmission with no microchannels. The peak cell temperature is measured as 69 °C with a thermal resistance of 9.35 K/W at 157 suns, well below the 110 °C maximum allowed temperature. A maximum flowrate of 16.7 g/s is achieved from a 13 psi pressure drop across the microchannels and manifold assembly. The flow characteristics within each microfluidic channel show maximum fluid velocity of 4.3 m/s (Re = 953) with a calculated convection coefficient of 1.7 × 10⁴ W/m² K (Nu = 5.36). The CPV/T module and cooling system performance was validated during week-long outdoor tests under varying solar conditions up to 250 suns using a 2.7 m² parabolic dish collector mounted to a two-axis tracking system.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Tulane University, New Orleans, LA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: AR0000473

OSTI ID:: 1613609

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1636448

Journal Information:: Applied Energy, Journal Name: Applied Energy Journal Issue: C Vol. 236; ISSN 0306-2619

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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