Comparison of Fresnel concentrators for building integrated photovoltaics

Abstract

To develop concentrating photovoltaic systems for building integration applications, two optical devices are proposed. The concentrators are based in stationary linear Fresnel lenses and secondary CPC. The moving focal area is ten times smaller than the Fresnel lens aperture. Concentrator characteristics are studied in detail: shadowing effect, placement of the focal area and optical concentration efficiency. The main contribution of this paper is the three-dimensional optical analysis of the non-imaging concentrating systems. In terms of solar radiation, photovoltaic moving modules placed in the focal area of stationary concentrators are compared with simply fixed photovoltaic modules. In favourable weather locations, the beam radiation incident on the concentrating modules would be a large percentage, more than 50%, of the global radiation received by the fixed photovoltaic devices.

The authors would like to acknowledge substantial funding by the MCYT (ENE2007-65410).