The efficiency of the most modern photovoltaic cells currently reaches 40–45%, which
is achieved by concentrator systems. However, despite better device efficiencies concentrator
photovoltaic cells have major drawback, namely the high amount of waste heat, which
requires new cooling solutions.
This paper gives a short overview of the current cooling techniques and proposes a
novel microchannel cooling solution for concentrator photovoltaic cells. In the concept,
the microscale channels are integrated into the backside metallization of the PV device.
The paper gives a description of the technological process that can be used to produce
microchannels on the back of solar cells and shows the optimization of the channels
to achieve optimal cooling performance.
