Tracking Free Solar Concentrator

Abstract

The increasing demand on clean electrical energy necessitates expansion in the research and development of sustainable energy sources. Solar energy offers a great resource for green energy due to its abundance. Photovoltaic panels suffer from low electrical efficiency leading to losses in the harvested energy. Thus, concentrated photovoltaics are mainly used in order to compensate the energy lost due to commercial panels low efficiency. An optical concentrator is attached to photovoltaic panel in order to increase the irradiance at the panel surface. In order to decrease costs for electrical generation in addition of using solar concentrators, tracking systems needs to be eliminated. Tracking systems requires at least one motor to rotate photovoltaic panels. Further, mechanical systems require continuous maintenance, elevating costs for electrical generation. The aim of the presented work is to introduce tracking free solar concentrators for photovoltaic applications. The concentrator should feature maximizing effective concentration ratio, illumination uniformity and acceptance angles range with minimum concentrator area. The main issue is to minimize as possible electrical power generation costs. Concentrated photovoltaics take advantage of using concentrating optics in order to increase irradiance at photovoltaic cell to improve efficiency and decrease electricity generation cost. The complex design structures, periodic maintenance and power consumed in tracking systems motivate the development of tracking-free systems.