Spectrum-Splitting Diffractive Optical Element of High Concentration Factor and High Optical Efficiency for Three-Junction Photovoltaics

A spectrum-splitting and beam-concentrating （SSBC） diffractive optical element （DOE） for three-junction pho- tovoltaics （PV） system is designed and fabricated by five-circ/e micro-fabrication. The incident solar light is efficiently split into three sub-spectrum ranges and strongly concentrated on the focal plane, which can be di- rectly utilized by suitable spectrum-matching solar cells. The system concentration factor reaches 12x. Moreover, the designed wavelengths （450nm, 550nm and 65Onto） are spatially distributed on the focal plane, in good agree- ment with the theoretical results. The average optical effic/ency of all the cells over the three designed wavelengths is 60.07%. The SSBC DOE with a high concentration factor and a high optical efficiency provides a cost-effective approach to achieve higher PV conversion efficieneies.

Design of Reflective Concentrator Model with Application for Concentrator Photovoltaic System

The nonuniform irradiation in the standard photovoltaic（PV） cells causes their relatively high series resistance,which results in a considerably lowered efficiency of PV cells.Currently the concentrator of uniform irradiation designed for concentrator photovoltaic is rare in China and lack sufficient theoretical research.In this paper,a systematic research on the solar reflective concentrator is conducted.A novel structure for a solar reflective concentrator is designed with the application of a flat mirror matrix to concentrate the sunlight for concentrator photovoltaic（CPV） systems.Sunlight beams are focused through the reflection of the mirror array on the solar cell to generate electricity.The concentrator is capable of producing much more uniform sunlight with a certain concentration ratio.The design scheme includes laying out the flat mirrors,optimizing the optical pathway and the parameters of each mirror.The prototype of the CPV system was installed at Nanjing,China.In the configuration of the prototype,it is composed of 24 pieces parallelogram flat mirrors,which are arranged into a total reflective array of 5 rows and 5 columns.In comparison with the parabolic trough concentrator,the experimental measurements verify such design has high efficiency.The concentrator model of a flat mirror matrix and the proposed new design method will lay a solid foundation for designing the concentrator of uniform irradiation.

Spectral Transmittance of Di-methyl Silicon Oil as a Heat Transfer Material for Concentrator Solar Cells

The accelerated life test was carded out to investigate the change of spectral transmittance of di-methyl silicon oil and the effects on the electrical performance of silicon solar cell. The di-methyl silicon oil samples be- fore and after accelerated life test were analyzed by FT-IR, GC-MS and LC-MS. The ring compounds and linear compounds with larger molecular weight were detected. The spectral transmittance of di-methyl silicon oil de- creased because the chromophore and auxochrome of the products made a sunlight receive decrease on the surface of the solar celt, and resulted in the reduction of cell performance. According to the decrease of spectral transmit- tance of di-methyl silicon oil, two recovery methods were proposed. The results showed that extraction was supe- rior to vacuum distillation in recovering the aged di-methyl silicon oil.

Performance Improving of a Concentrating Photovoltaic System by Using a New Optical Adhesive

The objective of this present study is to manufacture a new silicone-based adhesive which is used for gluing and bonding the second optical elements (SOE) with Concentrating Photovoltaic solar cell (CPV) in order to guarantee a thickness that can provide a good silicone adherence to obtain long term stability and keeping a good solar transmittance performance, too. This new adhesive is made up of a mixture of silicone and transparent glass balls. The experimental part consists of the choice of the best size of glass balls with the suitable proportion of the glass balls weight in the mixture. For this purpose, ten samples were manufactured for every category of glass balls and weight ratio. Glass ball sizes between 100 and 1100 μm, and weight ratios between 1 and 10% were analyzed. For each category of glass balls, four proportions were mixed with the silicone. The thicknesses and transmittance of every sample were measured with appropriate instruments. The experimental results illustrate that the mixture containing balls with sizes inferior to 106 μm, is the best mixture which assures adhesive minimum thickness value necessary for an efficient mechanical bond and preserves also a good transmittance of solar irradiance.

Capacity-operation collaborative optimization of the system integrated with wind power/photovoltaic/concentrating solar power with S-CO_(2) Brayton cycle

This paper proposes a new power generating system that combines wind power(WP),photovoltaic(PV),trough concentrating solar power(CSP)with a supercritical carbon dioxide(S-CO_(2))Brayton power cycle,a thermal energy storage(TES),and an electric heater(EH)subsystem.The wind power/photovoltaic/concentrating solar power(WP-PV-CSP)with the S-CO_(2) Brayton cycle system is powered by renewable energy.Then,it constructs a bi-level capacity-operation collaborative optimization model and proposes a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-Ⅱ(NSGA-Ⅱ)nested linear programming(LP)algorithm to solve this optimization problem,aiming to obtain a set of optimal capacity configurations that balance carbon emissions,economics,and operation scheduling.Afterwards,using Zhangbei area,a place in China which has significant wind and solar energy resources as a practical application case,it utilizes a bi-level optimization model to improve the capacity and annual load scheduling of the system.Finally,it establishes three reference systems to compare the annual operating characteristics of the WP-PV-CSP(S-CO_(2))system,highlighting the benefits of adopting the S-CO_(2) Brayton cycle and equipping the system with EH.After capacity-operation collaborative optimization,the levelized cost of energy(LCOE)and carbon emissions of the WP-PV-CSP(S-CO_(2))system are decreased by 3.43%and 92.13%,respectively,compared to the reference system without optimization.

A review of concentrated photovoltaic-thermal(CPVT) hybrid solar systems with waste heat recovery(WHR)

In conventional photovoltaic(PV) systems, a large portion of solar energy is dissipated as waste heat since the generating efficiency is usually less than 30%. As the dissipated heat can be recovered for various applications, the wasted heat recovery concentrator PV/thermal(WHR CPVT) hybrid systems have been developed. They can provide both electricity and usable heat by combining thermal systems with concentrator PV(CPV) module, which dramatically improves the overall conversion efficiency of solar energy.This paper systematically and comprehensively reviews the research and development of WHR CPVT systems. WHR CPVT systems with innovative design configurations, different theoretical evaluation models and experimental test processes for several implementations are presented in an integrated manner. We aim to provide a global point of view on the research trends, market potential, technical obstacles, and the future work which is required in the development of WHR CPVT technology. Possibly, it will offer a generic guide to the investigators who are interested in the study of WHR CPVT systems.

A switchable concentrating photovoltaic/concentrating solar power(CPV/CSP)hybrid system for flexible electricity/thermal generation

Due to the intermittency and indeterminacy of solar irradiance,balancing energy supply and load demand remains a challenge.This paper proposed a switchable hybrid system that combines concentrating photovoltaic/concentrating solar power(CPV/CSP)technology with thermal energy storage(TES)to achieve flexible electricity and thermal generation by adjusting the incident solar flux of photovoltaic(PV).The hybrid system can directly transfer surplus solar energy into high-quality heat for storage using a rotatable PV/heat receiver.The simulated results demonstrated that the hybrid system effectively improves power generation,optimally utilizes TES capacity,and reduces the levelized cost of electricity(LCOE).Over a selected seven-day period,the single-junction(1J)Ga As solar cells used in the hybrid system sustainably satisfied the load demand for more than five days without grid supplement,outperforming the CSP plant by an additional two days.The hybrid system utilizing the 1J Ga As with the base configuration of solar multiple(SM)of 1.26 and TES capacity of 5 h improved the annual power production and renewable penetration(RP)by 20.8%and 24.8%compared with the conventional CSP plant,respectively.The hybrid plant with monosilicon and a configuration of SM(1.8),PV ratio(1),and TES capacity(6 h)achieved an optimal LCOE of11.52$ct/k Wh and RP of 75.5%,which is 8.8%lower and 12.1%higher than the CSP plant,respectively.

Optical analysis of a hybrid solar concentrating Photovoltaic /Thermal (CPV/T) system with beam splitting technique

A novel hybrid solar concentrating Photovoltaic/Thermal (CPV/T) system with beam splitting technique is presented. In this system, a beam splitter is used to separate the concentrated solar radiation into two parts: one for the PV power generation and the other for thermal utility. The solar concentrator is a flat Fresnel-type concentrator with glass mirror reflectors. It can concentrate solar radiation onto solar cells with high uniformity, which is beneficial to improving the efficiency of solar cells. The thermal receiver is separated to the solar cells, and therefore, the thermal fluid can be heated to a relatively high temperature and does not affect the performance of solar cells. A dimensionless model was developed for the performance analysis of the concentrating system. The effects of the main parameters on the performance of the concentrator were analyzed. The beam splitter with coating materials Nb2O3 /SiO2 was designed by using the needle optimization technique, which can reflect about 71% of the undesired radiation for silicon cell(1.1m < 3m) to the thermal receiver for thermal utility. The performance of this CPV/T system was also theoretically analyzed.

Enhanced Heat Transfer of Carbon Nanotube Nanofluid Microchannels Applied on Cooling Gallium Arsenide Cell

Carbon nanotube nanofluids have wide application prospects due to their unique structure and excellent properties.In this study,the thermal conductivity properties of carbon nanotube nanofluids and SiO2/water nanofluids were compared and analyzed experimentally using different preparation methods.The physical properties of nanofluids were tested using a Malvern Zetasizer Nano Instrument and a Hot Disk Thermal Constant Analyzer.Combined with field synergy theory analysis of the heat transfer performance of nanofluids,results show that the thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube nanofluids is higher than that of SiO2/water nanofluids,and the thermal conductivity of nanofluid rises with the increase of mass fraction and temperature.Moreover,the synergistic performance of carbon nanotube nanofluids is also superior to that of SiO2/water nanofluids.When the mass fraction of the carbon nanotube nanofluids is 10%and the SiO2/water nanofluids is 8%,their field synergy numbers and heat transfer enhancement factors both reach maximum.From the perspective of the preparation method,the thermal conductivity of nanofluids dispersed by high shear microfluidizer is higher than that by ultrasonic dispersion.This result provides some reference for the selection and use of working substance in a microchannel cooling concentrated photovoltaic and thermal(CPV/T)system.

Smart luminescent solar concentrator as a BICPV window

Building integrated concentrating photovoltaic(BICPV)windows have attracted numerous studies in recent years.However,there is a tradeoff between the light transmittance and power generation efficiency in the design of BICPV window.In this paper,a smart luminescent solar concentrator(LSC)is introduced as the BICPV window.The proposed smart LSC system features on the combination of fluorescent dyes with thermochromic materials to enhance photoelectric conversion efficiency as well as form a dynamic response mechanism to ambient solar radiation and environmental temperature.In this study,a BICPV smart window system consists of the waveguide doped with organic dye Lumogen F Red-305(BASF)and the thermochromic hydrogel membrane has been developed.The research on analytic design parameters is executed through optical simulation by ray tracing technology along with outdoor comparative experiments.From simulations for a smart LSC of 100 mm×100 mm×3 mm with a bottom-mounted solar cell of 100 mm×10 mm,the optical effective concentration is found to be with the range of 1.23 to 1.31 when a highest gain of 1.26 in power over the bare solar cell is obtained from experiments.