Performance evaluation of six configurations of a photovoltaic (PV) string with an integrated non-imaging concentrator and water cooling system

This paper presents the performance analysis of PV integrated with the non-imaging type compound parabolic concentration (CPC) system with the concentration of 2.3X. The performance of PV-CPC system is predicted through detail numerical modelling which included optical, thermal and electrical models. The following six different configurations are considered: (a) Flat PV string without and with water cooling, (b) unglazed PV-CPC system without and with water cooling and (c) glazed PV-CPC system without and with water cooling. The absorbed radiation and the module temperature were given as input parameters from the optical and thermal modeling, respectively, into the electrical model to find the power output from the above six configurations. The numerical results showed that by integrating uncooled PV string with unglazed CPC, the amount of power was enhanced by 45.2%. If water cooling was provided along with the unglazed CPC reflectors and compared with uncooled simple flat PV string, the increase in the electrical power was about 73.6%. Water cooling reduced the operating temperature of unglazed PV-CPC system from 69.2 to 46°C.