Radiance/Pmap simulation of a novel lens-walled compound parabolic concentrator (lens-walled CPC)

Abstract

This study presents a Radiance/Pmap ray-tracing analysis of a lens-walled compound parabolic concentrator (lenswalled CPC), which has a thin CPC-shape lens attached to a common mirror CPC or being mirror-coated outside. The lens-walled CPC may have a larger acceptance angle than a mirror CPC and could be an alternative to a solid dielectric CPC which may be heavy and costly. The lens-walled CPC may be a promising design for buildingintegrated photovoltaics applications. The well-known ray-tracing software Radiance with its supplementary Pmap is used to verify the principle of the presented lens-walled CPC and examine its optical performance against the mirror and solid CPCs. A comparison of simulation results between Radiance/Pmap and a commercial software Photopia is also given.