Abstract
Photovoltaic (PV) devices are spectrally selective, and their performance is influenced by unavoidable spectral variations. In addition, multijunction-based concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) devices show a strong spectral dependence due to the series connection of various junctions with different absorption bands, and also due to the use of concentrator optics. In this work, the accuracy of a new set of analytical equations that quantify the spectral impact caused by the changes in air mass (AM), aerosol optical depth (AOD) and precipitable water (PW) is discussed. Four different CPV devices based on lattice-matched and metamorphic triple-junction solar cells and a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and silicon-on-glass (SoG) Fresnel lenses are considered. A long-term outdoor experimental campaign was carried out at the Centre for Advanced Studies on Energy and Environment (CEAEMA) of the University of Jaén, Spain. Results show a high accuracy in the estimations of the spectral factor (SF), with an average mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) within 0.91% and a mean relative error (MRE) within −0.32%.
Highlights
Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems employ optical components that focus the direct sunlight by reflection or refraction onto a smaller area usually made of high efficiency III-V multijunction (MJ) solar cells
It is well-known that the performance of photovoltaic (PV) devices is influenced by the unavoidable spectral variations that are mainly caused by changes in air mass (AM, i.e., the path length of the sun through the atmosphere relative to the zenith), aerosol optical depth (AOD, i.e., the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere) and precipitable water (PW, i.e., the total amount of water in a column in the zenith direction)
In order to quantify the accuracy of the procedure, different statistical metrics were calculated such as the mean percentage absolute error (MAPE) and the mean relative error (MRE)
Summary
Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems employ optical components that focus the direct sunlight by reflection or refraction onto a smaller area usually made of high efficiency III-V multijunction (MJ) solar cells. The state-of-the-art triple-junction (3J) solar cell on the market is the lattice-matched (LM) 3J solar cell made of GaInP/GaInAs/Ge subcells [5], while the record efficiency of 46% was achieved by a four-junction (4J) solar cell [6] It is well-known that the performance of photovoltaic (PV) devices is influenced by the unavoidable spectral variations that are mainly caused by changes in air mass (AM, i.e., the path length of the sun through the atmosphere relative to the zenith), aerosol optical depth (AOD, i.e., the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere) and precipitable water (PW, i.e., the total amount of water in a column in the zenith direction). The description of the methodology used to extract the equations and information on the experimental set-up used to evaluate the proposed equations of all systems is provided
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