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Design of low‐concentration static III‐V/Si partial CPV module with 27.3% annual efficiency for car‐roof application
Author(s) -
Sato Daisuke,
Lee KanHua,
Araki Kenji,
Masuda Taizo,
Yamaguchi Masafumi,
Yamada Noboru
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
progress in photovoltaics: research and applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.286
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1099-159X
pISSN - 1062-7995
DOI - 10.1002/pip.3124
Subject(s) - concentrator , roof , irradiance , materials science , photovoltaic system , nonimaging optics , optics , power (physics) , environmental science , optoelectronics , structural engineering , electrical engineering , physics , engineering , quantum mechanics
A low‐concentration static III‐V/Si partial concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) module for area‐limited car roofs was designed and experimentally demonstrated. The concentrator lens geometry was optimized for an incidence‐angle dependency of annual global irradiance on a car‐roof (horizontal‐flat) surface by considering arbitrary car orientations. The designed lens with a geometrical concentration ratio of 3.5× for III‐V triple‐junction (3‐junction) cells can collect 46.6% and 36.4% of the annual irradiation onto a III‐V 3‐juction and Si cells, respectively, which are located under the III‐V cell. The module design was validated by indoor and outdoor tests using a prototype submodule. The results show that the present module can potentially achieve up to 27.3% annual module efficiency, as projected from the actual daily submodule efficiency of 20.8% assuming state‐of‐the‐art record cell efficiency. Furthermore, the outdoor test on a real curved car roof demonstrated that the effect of the curved surface on the power generation performance is comparable with that of a conventional PV module.