In this study, we design a Cassegrain-based concentrator with tailored mirrors. The proposed concentrator comprises a primary optical element (POE) and a secondary optical element (SOE). The POE is a parabolic concave mirror and the SOE is a hyperbolic convex mirror. In order to achieve uniform irradiance distribution without a homogenizer, the POE is tailored and tilted to generate a uniform distribution by overlapping the energy well. The Cassegrain-based concentrator with tailored mirrors can achieve a geometric concentration ratio of 1236 × , a concentration ratio of 1034 × , an optical efficiency of 83.66%, an acceptance angle of ± 0.38 ∘ , a uniformity of 7.87, and an aspect ratio of 0.254.

In this paper, a miniaturized concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) system is experimentally demonstrated based on a hot embossing silicone lens array with a size of 2 cm × 2 cm. Owing to the small size of the lens array, the total track of the CPV system can be as small as 4 cm. Consequently, the weight of the CPV system can be much lower than conventional bulky CPV system. For harvesting the diffuse solar radiation, perovskite solar cells are mounted adjacent to a multi-junction solar cell. Theoretically, the short-circuit current of the CPV system can be enhanced from 48.1 to 85.5 mA for γ = 0.7. The enhancement can be much higher for off-normal incident light. This kind of hybrid CPV system will be useful for cloudy weather and also useful for compensating the loss caused by the miss-alignment of the tracking module.

No abstract