The free form XR photovoltaic concentrator: a high performance SMS3D design

Aleksandra Cvetkovic; Maikel Hernandez; Pablo Benítez; Juan C. Miñano; Joel Schwartz; Adam Plesniak; Russ Jones; David Whelan

doi:10.1117/12.793714

9 September 2008 The free form XR photovoltaic concentrator: a high performance SMS3D design

Aleksandra Cvetkovic, Maikel Hernandez, Pablo Benítez, Juan C. Miñano, Joel Schwartz, Adam Plesniak, Russ Jones, David Whelan

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7043, High and Low Concentration for Solar Electric Applications III; 70430E (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.793714
Event: Solar Energy + Applications, 2008, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

A novel photovoltaic concentrator is presented. The goal is to achieve high concentration design with high efficiency and high acceptance angle that in the same time is compact and convenient for thermal and mechanical management. This photovoltaic system is based on 1 cm² multi-junction tandem solar cells and an XR concentrator. The XR concentrator in this system is an SMS 3D design formed by one reflective (X) and one refractive (R) free-form surfaces (i.e., without rotational or linear symmetry) and has been chosen for its excellent aspect ratio and for its ability to perform near the thermodynamic limit. It is a mirror-lens device that has no shadowing elements and has square entry aperture (the whole system aperture area is used for collecting light). This large acceptance angle relaxes the manufacturing tolerances of all the optical and mechanical components of the system included the concentrator itself and is one of the keys to get a cost competitive photovoltaic generator. For the geometrical concentration of 1000x the simulation results show the acceptance angle of ±1.8 deg. The irradiance distribution on the cell is achieved with ultra-short homogenizing prism, whose size is optimised to keep the maximum values under the ones that the cell can accept. The application of the XR optics to high-concentration is being developed in a consortium leaded by The Boeing Company, which has been awarded a project by US DOE in the framework of the Solar America Initiative.

Citation Download Citation

Aleksandra Cvetkovic, Maikel Hernandez, Pablo Benítez, Juan C. Miñano, Joel Schwartz, Adam Plesniak, Russ Jones, and David Whelan "The free form XR photovoltaic concentrator: a high performance SMS3D design", Proc. SPIE 7043, High and Low Concentration for Solar Electric Applications III, 70430E (9 September 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.793714

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