Impact Study of Operating Temperatures and Cell Layout Under Different Concentration Factors in a CPC-PV Solar Collector in Combination with a Vertical Glass Receiver Composed by Bifacial Cells
Abstract
Solar concentrators re-direct solar radiation that passes through an aperture into an absorber, thus reducing solar collector’s production costs and increase the output per photovoltaic cell. A symmetrically truncated non-tracking compound parabolic concentrator collector has been developed. The collector type has a central vertical bifacial (fin) glass receiver and it was optimized for lower latitudes. The design concept is based on a general reflector form that is truncated to fit different installation requirements. In this paper, different solar collector design concepts with distinct concentration ratios have been built and outdoor tested for their respective Incidence Angle Modifiers (IAM) and electric peak power. Novel bifacial glass receivers have been developed and built in order to fit the CPC design concepts, where the full-size cell glass receiver revealed to be more efficient than the half-size cell glass receiver. The electrical peak power at normal incidence was measured, registering values between 69W and 95W.