Improvement the thermal electric performance of a photovoltaic cells by cooling and concentration techniques

Photovoltaic (PV) cell converts part of the solar energy into electrical energy. The remainder part is converted into heat. This heat inversely affects the efficiency of the solar cell. In this paper, the effect of the actual cell temperature on the performance of a photovoltaic cell is investigated. The effect of concentrator direction and maximum number of reflectors on the performance of a PV cells is presented. Two methods of cooling the PV cells are used. The first method is direct water-cooling. The second method is cooling PV cells by using heat pipe technique. From the obtained results, the terminal voltage of the photovoltaic decreases as the temperature of the cells increases. Use of parabolic concentrating collectors (dish) in order to maximize cell output with minimizes cell area. PV cells have high output power at lower operating temperatures. Heat pipe cooling technique is the best cooling method for a PV cells. The average cell operating temperature are necessary rather low in order to maintain a reasonable conversion efficiency.