Analysis of a New Hybrid Water-Phase Change Material Heat Sink for Low Concentrated Photovoltaic Systems

Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) integrated with phase-change material (CPV-PCM) system is considered as a single module to reduce the CPV temperature rise and achieve higher solar conversion efficiency. For low concentration ratios (CRs), up to 20, a larger PCM thickness is needed to absorb much more heat and prolong the thermal regulation time of CPV systems. As a result, the heat absorbed in the PCM is not released efficiently to the ambient during the night time. Therefore, active heat dissipation from the CPV-PCM system is required during that time to attain full transition to solid state at the starting of each period of insolation. Thus, a hybrid CPV-PCM water system including various designs of the PCM heat sink is proposed. Such system provides a high-energy storage density during the daytime and enhances the heat extraction from PCM during the night time. To predict the thermal and electrical performance of the hybrid CPV-PCM water system, a comprehensive 2-D model for CPV layers integrated with both PCM, and water flow is developed. The model couples thermal models for CPV layers and thermo-fluid model that considers the phase-change phenomenon and water flow. Numerical simulations of the developed models are performed to determine the instantaneous liquid-solid interface evolution and the transient temperature distribution within the hybrid CPV-PCM water system. Results indicate that the hybrid CPV-PCM water system achieves a significant reduction in the CPV temperature during the daytime and improves the heat dissipation from PCM during the night time.