Effect of temperature and concentration on commercial silicon module based low-concentration photovoltaic system

Abstract

A low-concentration photovoltaic (LCPV) system has immense potential for further cost reduction of solar photovoltaic (PV) power as compared to flat panel PV. This paper explains the performance of commercially available solar PV module mounted on parabolic trough collector experimentally and theoretically. A piecewise linear parabolic trough collector is modeled and designed to focus the solar radiation with uniform intensity on solar PV module. Silicon solar PV module based LCPV system is also modeled and simulated to study the variation of output power, open-circuit voltage, and short-circuit current with respect to module temperature and irradiance. The developed theoretical model is able to predict the performance of a LCPV system under the actual test conditions (ATCs). It was observed that the open-circuit voltage decreases from 9.86 to 8.24 V with temperature coefficient of voltage ≈−0.021 V/K under ATC. The short-circuit current of LCPV system shows increasing trend with light concentration with a rate of ≈0.285 Am2/kW. The results confirm that the commercially available silicon solar PV module performs satisfactorily up to ∼8 Sun concentration.