Influence of an Anti-Reflective Coating (ARC) with a pyramidal texture on a Building Integrated low-Concentration Photovoltaic (BICPV) system

Abstract

Photovoltaic solar energy brings a new opportunity to reduce electricity generation costs and the emission of greenhouse gases. This generation has positioned itself as the most important for renewable energies, mainly because of its impact on generation at an industrial scale. However, in the residential sector, different strategies are proposed within the framework of the best use of the available area to reduce costs, as is the case of low-concentration photovoltaic systems. This document presents an Anti-Reflective Coating (ARC) with a pyramidal texture in two dimensions, for a V-Trough type photovoltaic concentrator, specifically for a Building Integrated low-Concentration Photovoltaic (BICPV) system to increase the light capture avoiding the energy loss caused by the rays coming from incidence angles different from the normal surface. For this, the authors propose a design methodology for the concentrator, determining the material and the geometry of the texture for the ARC and ray tracing simulations and experimentation validate the whole assembly. Finally, electrical generation data is taken in real-time, and it is observed how this texture's application positively affects the photovoltaic system's generation, increasing the normalized efficiency by more than 3 %.