Abstract

A simple, inexpensive approach aimed at cost reduction is through sunlight concentration enhancement with geometrical optics. Solar panels (~10-70 W_p range) were investigated with up to two mirror reflectors in order to determine gains in output in both dry and humid environments. Flat glass mirrors with 70% reflectance were used to direct sunlight to the solar panel surface create maximum of ~2.4 x sunlight enhancement. Averaged over different panels sizes operating in dry climate, gains in short-circuit current and peak power were 49.2 and 35.8% respectively; for the humid climate, respective gains were 29.7 and 23%. Continuous measurements as a function of time between 10:30 AM to 3 PM revealed respective current and power gains of 22.7 and 14.2%. Simple air cooling was determined to increase power output by 10%.

Keywords:

CPV , low-concentration PV, optical concentration system , Si solar panel,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.