Micro-optics for high-efficiency optical performance and simplified tracking for concentrated photovoltaics (CPV)

Sweatt, William C.; Jared, Bradley Howell; Nielson, Greg; Okandan, Murat; Filatov, Anton; Sinclair, Michael B.; Cruz‐Campa, Jose Luis; Lentine, Anthony L.

doi:10.1117/12.870964

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Reduce the external tracking effort in favour of a compact installation, for example [9][10][11][12][13][14] 2. Fine-tune the tracking functionality allowing coarse external solar tracking [15] Furthermore, it is of course possible to combine both functionalities to reduce the external tracking effort and to allow coarse remaining external solar tracking at the same time. For both types, it is essential to introduce additional degrees of freedom to the CPV module, such as the relative movement between optics and solar cells.…”

Section: General Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailored free-form optics with movement to integrate tracking in concentrating photovoltaics

2013

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The economic use of high-efficiency solar cells in photovoltaics requires high concentration of sunlight and therefore precise dual-axis tracking of the sun. Due to their size and bulkiness, these trackers are less adequate for small- to mid-scale installations like flat rooftops. Our approach to combine concentrating and tracking of sunlight utilizes two laterally moving lens arrays. The presented analytic optics design method allows direct calculation of the free-form lens surfaces while incorporating the lateral movement. The obtained concentration performance exceeds a factor of 500. This demonstrates that one can benefit from high-efficiency solar cells and more compact and flexible single-axis trackers at the same time.

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Section: General Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailored free-form optics with movement to integrate tracking in concentrating photovoltaics

2013

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“…Justin [3] has studied a light-guide type micro-structured optics to achieve sun tracking and collect its energy with edge mounted solar cells. Sweatt [4] designed two horizontally movable lens arrays to concentrate sun light onto an array of solar cells. Fabian [5] used an extended SMS method to design lateral moving optics which also produces direct concentrated lights.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beam-steering array optics designs with the SMS method

2012

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In this work, a new design concept of SMS moving optics is developed, in which the movement is no longer lateral but follows a curved trajectory calculated in the design process. Curved tracking trajectory helps to broaden the incident angle's range significantly. We have chosen an afocal-type structure which aim to direct the parallel rays of large incident angles to parallel output rays. The RMS of the divergence angle of the output rays remains below 1 degree for an incident angular range of ±45 0 . Potential applications of this beam-steering device are: skylights to provide steerable natural illumination, building integrated CPV systems, and steerable LED illumination.

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“…[1][2][3] The solar cells we used (see Figure 1) were made of reduced amounts of materials known to provide highefficiency PV cells-such as crystalline silicon and gallium arsenide (GaAs)-and their small scale allowed us to try development of affordable methods for optical concentration. 4 We developed crystalline-silicon solar cells that are 14 to 20 m thick and 250 across. These cells were created using standardthickness silicon wafers that were either (111) oriented or siliconon-insulator wafers.…”

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confidence: 99%