Research on improving heat dissipation of monocrystalline silicon solar cells based on radiation cooling

The photovoltaic conversion of solar energy is one of the ways to utilize solar energy, most of the energy absorbed by the solar cell is converted into heat, which raises its temperature and negatively affects the performance and durability. Therefore, reducing the operating temperature is essential for the photovoltaic conversion of solar cells. In recent years, the rapid development of radiation cooling technology has opened up new ideas for solar cell cooling, namely radiation cooling of solar cells. In this article, the spectral properties of radiative cooling films are studied using the finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The findings reveal that radiative cooling films with PVC (polyvinyl chloride) at 100 μm and PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) mixed with 6% SiO2 (silicon dioxide) at 60 μm have a film transmittance >89% in the range of 0.3 to 1.1 μm and an emissivity >93% in the range of 8 to 13 μm. The radiation cooling film was also prepared for outdoor experiments, and the results showed that the radiation cooling film can effectively reduce the temperature by 1.79°C, improving the heat dissipation of monocrystalline silicon solar cells. The radiation cooling film proposed in this article has good radiation cooling performance, simple preparation process, low cost, and hence expected to have a wide range of application prospects.