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Radiative cooling of solar cells with micro-grating photonic cooler

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Bin
  • Lu, Kegui
  • Hu, Mingke
  • Liu, Jie
  • Wu, Lijun
  • Xu, Chengfeng
  • Xuan, Qingdong
  • Pei, Gang

Abstract

Radiative cooling of solar cells has been proposed in recent years and has elicited much interest from fields of materials science to engineering science. Herein, a silica micro-grating photonic cooler is proposed, designed, and fabricated to radiatively cool solar cells. It is shown that the micro-grating silica can not only improve the thermal emissivity of the bulk silica to over 0.9 required for enhanced radiative cooling of solar cells but also exhibits a slight anti-reflection effect for sunlight. The outdoor experiment demonstrates that the proposed cooler can passively reduce the temperature of the commercial silicon cell by 3.6 °C when applied on the top of the cell under solar irradiance range from approximately 830 W m−2 to 990 W m−2, even though the cell already possesses a strong thermal emissivity of 0.67 and such a cooler slightly enhance the light trapping effect of the cell. This work provides an alternative way to design the solar-transparent infrared-emissive cooler for enhanced radiative cooling of solar cells and shows its cooling potential.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Bin & Lu, Kegui & Hu, Mingke & Liu, Jie & Wu, Lijun & Xu, Chengfeng & Xuan, Qingdong & Pei, Gang, 2022. "Radiative cooling of solar cells with micro-grating photonic cooler," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 662-668.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:191:y:2022:i:c:p:662-668
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2022.04.063
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Zhao, Bin & Hu, Mingke & Ao, Xianze & Xuan, Qingdong & Pei, Gang, 2020. "Spectrally selective approaches for passive cooling of solar cells: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
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    8. Wang, Zijun & Cao, Shaowen & Cai, Qilin & Zhang, Yingshi & Zhao, Defan & Liu, Ruizhi & Ye, Qing & Wu, Xi, 2025. "Investigation on a novel integrated system of radiative cooling and solar photovoltaics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PD).
    9. Song, Zhiying & Ji, Jie & Zhang, Yuzhe & Cai, Jingyong & Li, Zhaomeng & Li, Yunhai, 2023. "Mathematical and experimental investigation about the dual-source heat pump integrating low concentrated photovoltaic and finned-tube exchanger," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).
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