Design and Performance Characteristics of Single-Axis Tracking Dual Confocal Low-Magnification Parabolic Trough CPV system

Abstract

With the rapid increase of PV module utilization, the environmental pollution associated with waste photovoltaic (PV) module and its recycling is of concern. This paper proposes a concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system to reduce the use of PV module. The cross-confocal method is employed for the concentrator to eliminate central dark streaks. In optical simulation, a theoretical uniformity index of 0.0466 and a theoretical optical efficiency of 89.87% were achieved. When the distance between the rotational axis and the center of gravity is less than 125.8mm, the system can withstand winds of 20.4m/s. The temperature range of the PV, obtained from finite element analysis, is from 295.71 K to 363.13 K. With the requirements of the relative optical efficiency of over 90% and the uniformity index of less 0.5, the system has a dimensional translation tolerance of approximately ±10mm, a dimensional rotation tolerance of about 5°, and a tracking angle tolerance of about 1°. The actual daily average output current of this system has increased by 100.91%. The ratio between the increase ratio of output current and the theoretical concentration ratio is 83.4%. The system demonstrates excellent optical performance and system tolerance.