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

太阳能技术是为住房和低速车辆提供电力的有利替代办法之一。由于全球变暖导致的环境温度升高，光伏电池的转换效率大大降低。该项目的目的是开发一种具有浸渍相变材料（PCM）的新型PV电池，该材料具有吸收辐射热和以潜热形式产生到电池中的热的能力，同时最大化具有改进的热和光学特性的多晶硅电池的转换效率，该电池在低电池温度下转换电力。浸渍的PCM充当吸收来自太阳辐射和能量转换产生的热量的吸收器。吸收的热量通过熔化过程存储在PCM内，即，热量存储为PCM的熔化潜热。相变相变为细胞提供了不同的热和光学特性，从太阳吸收丰富的热能和光能，并将其转化为有用的能量。PCM-in-PV项目涵盖广泛的学科，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.