Three-dimensional v-trough solar concentrator with diffuser for uniform cell illumination

Kirollos Ernest; Ahmed S. Abd-Rabou; Yasser M. Sabry; Diaa Khalil

doi:10.1117/12.2607883

4 March 2022 Three-dimensional v-trough solar concentrator with diffuser for uniform cell illumination

Kirollos Ernest, Ahmed S. Abd-Rabou, Yasser M. Sabry, Diaa Khalil

Proceedings Volume 11996, Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices XI; 119960C (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2607883
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2022, San Francisco, California, United States

Conference Poster

Abstract

V-trough concentrators are usually implemented in low-concentration ratios photovoltaics for its low-cost and ease of manufacturing. The three-dimensional (3-D) configuration using four mirrors offers higher effective concentration ratios than the conventional two-dimensional v-trough concentrators. However, the skew rays hitting the photovoltaic cell in the 3-D case leads to an increase in the intensity non-uniformity and the formation of hot spots. One method to smooth incident rays on a receiver aperture is to add a diffuser in the light path such that the light incident on a diffuser is scattered in all directions following Lambertian distribution. In this work, we present a compound concentrator based on 3-D v-trough embedding a transmission diffuser to improve the illumination uniformity and reduce the hot spots. A concentrator with input and output apertures of 7.5 cm and 5 cm, respectively, and a length of 4.8 cm is proposed. Using ray tracing, the optimal position of diffuser inside the concentrator was located at a distance of 4 cm from the input aperture. The tilting angle effect on the effective concentration and the illumination non-uniformity were analyzed. The illumination nonuniformity is decreased by 33 %, while the effective concentration ratio is decreased by 17 %. The structure was realized using low-cost commercial flat mirror segments and tracing paper diffuser and was used for solar collection in a normal incidence case. The illumination profile of the cell was recorded before and after installing the diffuser showing an improvement of 41 % in non-uniformity and reduction in the effective concentration by 22 % only.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Kirollos Ernest, Ahmed S. Abd-Rabou, Yasser M. Sabry, and Diaa Khalil "Three-dimensional v-trough solar concentrator with diffuser for uniform cell illumination", Proc. SPIE 11996, Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices XI, 119960C (4 March 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2607883

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