Performance Improvement of Light-Trapping Type Concentrator Modules for Circular Cells

A flat-type concentrator for circular solar cells has been proposed to improve the performance for a conventional flat-plate module with perfectly circular and semi-square Cz silicon cells. Fundamental optical properties of various V-grooves for concentrator modules with circular cells are calculated using a ray-tracing method to optimize the shape of V-groove. Based on these results, yearly-integrated irradiance ratios of the concentrator to a conventional flat-plate module are calculated using meteorological data. By the use of a reflection material with a reflectivity of 94%, yearly-integrated irradiance ratio of an optimized light-trapping type concentrator (LTC) module with circular cells attains to 1.18. Suppose that the LTC module and a conventional module gain the same amount of irradiance, the area of solar cells in the PV module can be reduced to 84.7% compared with the conventional flat-plate module. A LTC module with semi-square solar cells is designed and simulated for module fabrication. Yearly-integrated irradiance ratio attains to 1.25 using a reflectivity of 80%. The area of solar cells in a PV module can be reduced to 80% compared with a conventional flat-plate module.