Electrical performance evaluation of low-concentrating non-imaging photovoltaic concentrator

Second generation prototype photovoltaic facades of reduced costs incorporating devices with optically concentrating elements (PRIDE) incorporate 6 mm wide 'Saturn' solar cells at the absorber of the dielectric concentrator. The concentrators were made using injection moulding technique with potential to manufacture in large-scale applications. Four different concentrator panels have been experimentally verified at outdoors to identify the non-identical current-voltage (I-V) curves. The I-V curve, fill factor and solar to electrical conversion efficiency of four PRIDE concentrator modules have been evaluated from the 24 manufactured in the 'IDEOCONTE' project. The maximum solar to electrical conversion efficiency and the fill factor of the PRIDE concentrator were 91 and 70%, respectively. The mismatch loss of the 'unit concentrators ' has been identified that occurred due to the lack of bonding between the concentrator unit and the solar cell and the rear glass. The average power concentration ratio of PRIDE concentrators manufactured by the improved method was 210 compared to a similar non-concentrating panel and the optical efficiency of the PRIDE system was 83%. Copyright ©2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.