Comparative Experimental Characterisation of Reflective and Refractive type 3-D Static Low Concentrating Photovoltaic System

摘要

Research into improving the power output of solar panels for the application of Photovoltaic into buildings is a rapidly growing area of research. A typical 3-D CPC geometry, referred to as the Crossed Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CCPC), is analysed to improve the conventional 3-D CPC for PV application. A 3-D ray trace code has been developed using MATLAB in order to study the theoretical optical efficiency and energy distribution at the solar cells at the exit area of the CCPC for different incidence angles. This paper presents the optical simulation results obtained by the 3-D ray trace code. In addition, a series of comparative experimental measurements under indoor conditions on the CCPC, based on both reflective and refractive type are presented validating the code. The experimental results revealed important factors related to the effect of the energy distribution on the solar cells for both the reflective and refractive type of solar concentrators. These results prove fundamental for the dimensioning and the consideration of the CCPC as a static PV solar concentrator.