Planar solar concentrator composed of stacked waveguides with arc-segment structures and movable receiving assemblies.

Abstract

In this study, we proposed a two-staged, transparent, planar solar concentrator composed of stacked waveguide sheets with an arc-segment structure array and movable receiving assemblies, which operated in a hybrid tracking approach. The stacked waveguide sheets carrying the arc-segment structures as TIR collectors could provide high concentration ratios and coupling efficiency with wide angular tolerance in the first stage. The following movable receiving assembly composed of light guide channels (LGCs) and compound parabolic collectors (CPCs) laterally slid according to the incidence angles to receive the earlier concentrated light for further concentration and provide the PV cells on the ends of CPCs with uniform irradiance in the second stage. The simulation results demonstrated that the optimal model could provide an average efficiency of 0.87, an average uniformity of 0.875, and an average concentration ratio of 738 over a whole year regarding the light source with AM 1.5D wavelengths in the working range of PV cells.