Spectral splitting planar solar concentrator: experimental testing of a design aiming at dye sensitized solar cells

Blain, Pascal; Michel, Céline; Clermont, Lionel; Languy, Fabian; Décultot, Marc; Habraken, Serge; Lenaerts, Cédric; Fleury-Frenette, Karl; Vandormael, Denis; Loicq, Jérôme

doi:10.1117/12.2051505

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In collaboration with the project Guide2Dye realized at Centre Spatial de Liège [9], the theoretical concept of our solar concentrator with light splitting (blazed concept) has been tested and compared with experimental results. The optical element was first a combination of a PMMA lens and a NOA76 grating.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical study of a spectrum splitting solar concentrator based on a combination of a diffraction grating and a Fresnel lens

Michel

Loicq²,

Thibert³

et al. 2015

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Abstract. This paper presents recent improvements of our new solar concentrator design for space application. The concentrator is based on a combination of a diffraction grating (blazed or lamellar) coupled with a Fresnel lens. Thanks to this diffractive/refractive combination, this optical element splits spatially and spectrally the light and focus approximately respectively visible light and IR light onto electrically independent specific cells. It avoid the use of MJs cells and then also their limitations like current matching and lattice matching conditions, leading theoretically to a more tolerant system. The concept is reminded, with recent optimizations, ideal and more realistic results, and the description of an experimental realization highlighting the feasibility of the concept and the closeness of theoretical and experimental results.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical study of a spectrum splitting solar concentrator based on a combination of a diffraction grating and a Fresnel lens

Michel

Loicq²,

Thibert³

et al. 2015

AIP Conference Proceedings

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“…The nonsymmetrical blazed configuration has been experimentally tested through an adaptation for a terrestrial application described in [12]. The design method is the same, only the material is different (PMMA+NOA76 instead of silicone).…”

Section: Optical Principle and Choice Of Gratingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3. Photography of the focal plane of the optical element (lens + grating) realized for a similar concentrator [12]. The spectral and spatial separation between nondiffracted light and 1st order diffracted light is obvious.…”

Section: Motivation For the Light-splitting Concentrator And Choice Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical study of diffraction grating/Fresnel lens combinations applied to a spectral-splitting solar concentrator for space applications

Michel

Loicq²,

Thibert³

et al. 2015

Appl. Opt.

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This paper presents a new design of a planar solar concentrator with spectral splitting of light for space applications. This concentrator spectrally splits the incident light into mainly two parts. Each part is then focused onto specific spatially separated photovoltaic cells allowing for independent control of respective cells' output power. These advantages of both spectral splitting and light focusing are combined here because of a specific diffraction grating superimposed on a Fresnel lens. The theoretical principle of the optical design is presented with optimization of each element and improvement steps including optimization of grating period evolution along the lens and testing of two kinds of gratings (a blazed and a lamellar one). First numerical results are presented highlighting the possibility to design a concentrator at about 10× or more for each cell with an output power larger than that of a classical concentrator focusing on a GaAs single junction cell and less than 10% of losses for tracking errors up to ±0.8°. Some experimental results are also presented.

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“…In refractive optics a sub division is made by the addition of diffractive component as surface relief grating and holographic elements (Blain et al, 2014;Michel et al, 2014) to correct the chromatic aberration of the system or to split light into different wavelength components (Michel et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept has been introduced in a previous paper (Blain et al, 2014), applied to two dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Here, we will expose the main characteristics and optical performances achievable by this concentrator concept, and further describe each optimization and development step: calculation and optimization methodology, including cell characteristics used for the design, and optimization of each optical element both individually and then together, to reach the best optical performances.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waveguide solar concentrator design with spectrally separated light

et al. 2017

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A B S T R A C TIn this article, we propose a new solar concentrator based on spectral splitting of sunlight. Spectral splitting has the objective to collect different spectra onto spectrally adapted solar cells for a more efficient use of the Sun's spectrum. Its combination with solar concentration makes an alternative to classical technologies. The proposed concentrator is composed of a diffractive/refractive optical element that spectrally splits and focuses the light onto a waveguide. The light is then conducted by total internal reflection towards the two specific solar cells. The optical concept and optimization of each element is presented in this paper. An adaptation for dye sensitized solar cells is performed. A geometrical factor around 5× is reached. Finally, theoretical optical efficiency, the manufacturing process and experimental testing with a collimated Sun simulator are presented.

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Spectral splitting planar solar concentrator: experimental testing of a design aiming at dye sensitized solar cells

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

Optical study of a spectrum splitting solar concentrator based on a combination of a diffraction grating and a Fresnel lens

Optical study of a spectrum splitting solar concentrator based on a combination of a diffraction grating and a Fresnel lens

Optical study of diffraction grating/Fresnel lens combinations applied to a spectral-splitting solar concentrator for space applications

Waveguide solar concentrator design with spectrally separated light

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