Case study of a grid connected with a battery photovoltaic system: V-trough concentration vs. single-axis tracking

Modelling and simulation of direct solar radiation for cost-effectiveness analysis of V-Trough photovoltaic devices

“…Moreover, analytical models tend to be considerably less computationally expensive when it comes to radiation simulation [24,32], and that is a crucial feature for real-time interactive modelling for design purposes. Tina and Scandura [34], Bahaidarah et al [5], Kostić et al [20], Reis et al [27], analytically modelled radiation for V-Trough applications, but with formulations that are over-simplified and not oriented towards a deeper step-by-step geometrical analysis. Fraidenraich [13,14] and Hermenean et al [18] developed more detailed analytical models of beam radiation for V-Trough solar devices, but the authors of this work believe that a more intuitive and design-oriented analytical model can be developed, going further into the exploration towards design insights, and with a higher flexibility in the selection of geometrical and tracking parameters.…”

“…Fraidenraich [13,14] and Hermenean et al [18] developed more detailed analytical models of beam radiation for V-Trough solar devices, but the authors of this work believe that a more intuitive and design-oriented analytical model can be developed, going further into the exploration towards design insights, and with a higher flexibility in the selection of geometrical and tracking parameters. Furthermore, it was found that the studied analytical models treated solar tracking and solar concentration separately and considered their effects as additive or took tracking into account only as a miss-alignment factor, as with [13,14,18,34]. Nevertheless, when tracking parameters are given more flexibility, they deeply affect the concentrating effects of the V-Trough optics and hence, both effects should not be treated as additive, but instead as a combined strategy as the proposed model of this work intends to do.…”

“…On the contrary, a panel with a tracking system follows the apparent movement of the sun on the sky, which reduces the described misalignment, improving the effective harvesting area throughout the day and thus, increasing the daily energy production in up to a 30-50 % [19]. Another way to increase the effective harvesting area is to directly escalate it with non-imaging optic devices, such as lenses [3] and reflective troughs [34]. This approach, known as solar concentration, works by reflecting or refracting the solar rays towards the solar absorber, e.g., a solar cell.…”

“…The optical elements of linear-focus LCPV consist mainly in Fresnel lenses [10] and reflective troughs of different geometries, i.e., cylindrical, compound parabolic and flat V-Troughs [2]. This work is centred in V-Trough LCPV because of the relative simplicity and low-cost of their optics, i.e., flat mirrors, which results in the potential of a technology that is more affordable, accessible and easier to manufacture and maintain [5,13,14,29,34].…”

A Combined Optical, Thermal and Electrical Performance Study of a V-Trough PV System—Experimental and Analytical Investigations

“…Results indicated that concentration ratio increases with the increase in incidence angle and the tracking step duration does not affect the reflected radiation. Regarding the V-trough reflectors, many studies are referred to one or two tracking axis using flat mirrors [17][18][19][20]. System performance can be enhanced by increasing the concentration ratio, but if it reaches beyond a critical value, cooling of the panel needs to be carried out.…”