SPECTRAL BEAM SPLITTING TECHNOLOGY FOR INCREASED SOLAR CONVERSION EFFICIENCY

摘要

The concept of splitting the spectrum of incident light into separate spectral bands to increase the photon-to-electric conversion efficiency originated from the design of a thermophotovoltaic energy converter introduced in the early 1960s. The idea was later adopted by the photovoltaic community when designing multijunction solar cells with optimised bandgap materials spanning the solar spectrum. Today, solar concentrating systems with new hybrid absorber technologies incorporate spectral beam splitting techniques to further improve overall conversion efficiencies. This paper gives an overview of the different spectral beam splitting strategies employed, as well as a review of the solar hybrid beam splitting systems previously presented in the literature. The application of beam splitting in the recently suggested Multi Tower Solar Array project is presented as a case study, to give an example of the performance expected with current commercially available absorber components.