PCM-in-PV - PV cells with modified optical and thermal properties for high-efficiency electrical applications

太阳能技术是为住宅和低速车辆提供电力的有利替代方案之一。由于全球变暖导致环境温度升高，光伏电池的转换效率大幅下降。该项目的目的是开发一种新型的具有浸透相变材料（PCM）的光伏电池，该材料具有吸收辐射热量并以潜热的形式产生到电池中的能力，同时最大限度地提高多晶硅电池的转换效率，并改善其热学和光学性能，在低电池温度下转换电能。浸渍的PCM充当吸收器，吸收来自太阳辐射和能量转换产生的热量。吸收的热量通过熔化过程储存在PCM内，即热量作为PCM的熔化潜热储存。PCM的相变为电池提供了不同的热学和光学特性，从太阳吸收了大量的热能和光能，并将其转化为有用的能量。PCM-in-PV项目涵盖了广泛的学科，如材料工程、化学、物理、能源、机械和化学工程。

Solar energy technology is one of the favourable alternatives in providing electricity for houses and low-speed vehicles. Due to the elevated environment temperature cause by global warming, the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) cells has decrease tremendously. The aim of this project is to develop a novel PV cell with impregnated phase-change material (PCM), which has the capability of absorbing heat radiated and generated into the cell as the form of latent heat, while maximising the conversion efficiency of a multi-crystalline Si cell with improved thermal and optical properties which converts electricity at low cell temperature. The impregnated PCM acts as an absorber that takes in heat from both the radiation from the Sun and generated from energy conversion. The heat absorbed are stored within the PCM through melting process, i.e. the heat is stored as the latent heat of fusion for the PCM. The transition of phase from PCM provides different thermal and optical properties for the cells, taking in the abundance of heat and light energy from the Sun and transform them into useful energy. The PCM-in-PV project covers a wide range of discipline, such as materials engineering, chemistry, physics, energy, mechanical and chemical engineering.