Method for Determining the Effective Concentration of Solar Energy in Concentrating Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

Solar concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) technology is one of the promising methods for increasing the efficiency of solar energy conversion. In CPV systems, the luminous flux absorbed by the photodetector (photovoltaic module or solar cell) depends on the reflectivity of the concentrator surface, which is a function of the angle of incidence of light. The absorbed luminous flux also depends on the relative angular transmission of light into the photovoltaic module. In this paper, we propose a refined method for determining the absorbed luminous flux by the photodetector using the concept of effective light concentration. The proposed method considers the angular dependence of the specular reflection coefficient of light, as well as the relative angular transmission of light into the photovoltaic module. As an example, two specularly reflecting CPV systems are considered – planar and V-shaped.