Optical and Electrical Performance Evaluation of the Crossed Compound Parabolic Concentrator Module for the Application of Ultra-High Concentrator Photovoltaic System

Abstract

This paper presents the performance evaluation in terms of optical and electrical characteristics of the crossed compound parabolic concentrator (CCPC) module for the application of the ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic (UHCPV) system. The CCPC module is the integration of a dielectric-filled 3D CCPC lens and a multi-junction solar cell (MJSC) module. The optical efficiency of the refractive lens has been evaluated through the ray-tracing simulation technique by including all the possible optical losses at each component level, and the output current of the MJSC module has also been calculated in accordance with its spectral response to the wavelengths range from 300 nm to 1800 nm. The optical efficiency of CCPC lens itself is determined to be 69.33%. With reference to the output current of the MJSC module without a CCPC lens, an optical concentration ratio of 4.65 is observed in the simulated result. An indoor experiment has been performed to validate the simulated result, in which an effective optical concentration ratio of 4.57 has been obtained via laboratory measurement. The experimental result is matched well with the simulated result and it shows that the CCPC module has an effective optical efficiency of 76.17% as the geometrical concentration ratio of the CCPC lens is 6.00. The detailed study of CCPC module is good for optimizing the performance of the UHCPV system.