Analysis of transmitted optical spectrum enabling accelerated testing of CPV designs

Abstract

Concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) has recently gained interest based on its scalability and expected low levelized cost of electricity. The reliability of materials used in CPV systems, however, is not well established. The current qualification test for photodegradation of CPV modules includes only real-time ultraviolet (UV) exposure, i.e. methods for accelerated UV testing have not been developed. Therefore, the UV and infrared (IR) spectra transmitted through representative optical systems is evaluated in this paper. The measurements of concentrating optics are used to assess expected optical performance as well as to understand how to quantify damaging optical exposure. Optical properties (transmittance, refractive index, reflectance, and absorptance) of candidate materials are identified. The dose and flux analysis here identifies the increased significance of IR (as opposed to UV) exposure for CPV systems, particularly for the most concentrating systems. For these, the UV dose may not greatly exceed the unconcentrated global solar condition, but the thermal load scales nearly directly with the geometric concentration.

High-Concentration Optics for Photovoltaic Applications

“…PC is sometimes suggested as an alternative to PMMA due to its significantly greater resilience, which prevents mechanical fracture and fatigue. However, PC has a smaller spectral bandwidth, less optical transmittance, and lower resistance to scratches [52]. It suffers more from optical dispersion, chromatic aberration, and solar-induced photo oxidation [53][54][55][56].…”

Aggrandizing and analysis of the adaptability of photovoltaic panels

“…While investigating the transmittance percentage, at glass thickness of 3.2mm, in comparison with clear glass, we have concluded the result that it transmits 90% of the light falling on it, having wavelength greater than 360nm. And the visible sunlight wavelength is also lying above 350nm, so those upper chambers of glass also not affects the transmittance of light falling on it (Pern, 2008;Miller et al, 2009). …”

Analysis of transmitted optical spectrum enabling accelerated testing of multijunction concentrating photovoltaic designs

“…The results here, tailored to the present III-V MJ cell technology, are compared to a previous analysis for c-Si cell technology. 12 The estimates identify the stresses induced within different CPV configurations, providing insight into the operating conditions affecting system performance. The estimates here also provide a foundation for developing an accelerated-aging test methodology that may be used to evaluate candidate encapsulation materials exposed to concentrated light.…”