Improvement of Optical Performances Using the Hybrid CPV

Abstract

Hybrid Concentrated Photovoltaics (HCPVs) are systems in which additional low-cost silicone solar cells are added to take advantage of the power generated by the diffuse radiation lost when using only multi-junction cells that work only with direct radiation. The work has been tested by simulating the performance of a hybrid CPV system composed of a Fresnel lens associated with a pyramid, multi junction cell as well as additional silicon solar cells. This proposal is compared with an ordinary CPV system and a system based on only silicon solar cells. The simulation results show that the CPV makes it possible to have a high optical efficiency of 94% at the pyramid exit for direct radiation, but this high efficiency rapidly decreases to 0% for diffuse radiation. In this case, the silicon solar cell comes into the scene to converts these diffused or non-concentrated rays into electricity, with an optical efficiency of 85%. It was also found that the Hybrid CPV system was able to increase the power by 21% compared to the CPV system.

Keywords

• multi-objective optimization
• radiance
• honeybeeplus
• field measurements