Performance Evaluation of Photovoltaic String with Compound Parabolic Concentrator

Abstract

Abstract-Photovoltaic (PV) system is used to directly converting the solar energy into the electrical energy. Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) is a non-imaging concentrator which is considered in this study for reducing the cost of electrical energy. Two configurations are numerically studied namely one with simple typical flat PV string and the other PV string with CPC. The truncated CPC with concentration ratio of 2.3 and an acceptance angle of 41.75° is considered in the analysis of PV string with CPC (PV-CPC). Transient System Simulation Software (TRNSYS) is used for the evaluation of PV cell performance with and without CPC. The mathematical model for PV and PV-CPC is developed for the performance estimation of thermal and electrical characteristic of the system. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) code is written to solve the mathematical model and is linked with TRNSYS for simulation. The simulation is carried out for the average day of the months of June and December for Riyadh city. Results indicated that the use of the CPC increases the absorbed energy and electrical power output of PV system. The electrical power of PV string increases almost 35% when CPC is used with PV compared to simple typical flat PV string.Index Term-Compound parabolic concentrator, TRNSYS, photovoltaic string, performance analysis. I. INTRODUCTIONSolar energy is considered as renewable and environment friendly energy source for meeting the world energy demands. Solar energy utilization can be classified into two categories: one is thermal system that converts solar energy into thermal energy, and the other is photovoltaic (PV) system that converts solar energy directly into electrical energy [1].Since the PV technology improves and maximizes the photoelectrical conversion rates, it has been extensively employed in the recent years. Due to the high initial capital cost of PV systems, their wide-ranging applications are restricted. The cost can be reduced either by increasing the efficiency of the solar cell or using concentration photovoltaic (CPV). A cost-effective and improved CPV system is obtained by producing the same amount of power by using less number of cells compared to conventional number of cells. It is reported that a low concentration photovoltaic system (LCPV) can reduce the cost up to 40% compared to a simple flat PV system [2], [3]. Due to their potentials of non-tracking, high liability and low cost, a considerable amount of research has been done for the development of various types LCPV applications [4]. Many efforts have been made in the recent years by using CPC to reduce the use of expensive solar cells and hence lower the cost of PV power output [5]-[8]. Concentration ratios in the range of 2-7 can be obtained with simple CPC which needs only the seasonal tilt adjustments rather than tracking the sun. To determine the yearly optimal tilt-angle of aperture to maximize the annual collectible radiation on the absorber of CPC and finding the optimal acceptance half-angle, a mathematical model was presented...

Application of compound parabolic concentrators to solar photovoltaic conversion: A comprehensive review

“…Ali and Gandhidasan theoretically compared the electrical performance of a PV module with and without the CPC (2.3×) and found that the electrical power of the PV module increased to about 35% when the CPC was used. However, they observed a decrease in the electrical power output due to rise in operating cell temperature.…”

Energy assessment of enhanced fixed low concentration photovoltaic systems

“…Low concentration methods include compound parabolic concentrators (Schuetz et al, 2011;Sellami and Mallick, 2013;Ali and Gandhidasan, 2015), V-trough concentrators (Tang and Liu, 2011;Tina and Scandurra, 2012;Bahaidarah et al, 2015) or flat planar concentrators also known as boosters (Tanaka, 2011;Andrews et al, 2011;Pavlović, 2015). In particular, the flat planar concentrators have the advantages of being inexpensive compared to both V-trough and parabolic reflectors (Andrews et al, 2011).…”

“…In this context, the evaluation of the real increase of yearly energy produced by a LCPV requires a detailed model of the system, especially for the electrical aspects. Different aspects of the modeling of LCPVs has been recently investigated and discussed by many researchers (Yadav et al, 2014;Palaskar and Deshmukh, 2014;Ali and Gandhidasan, 2015;Tang and Liu, 2011;Bahaidarah et al, 2015;Tanaka, 2011;Andrews et al, 2011;Pavlović, 2015;Rö nnelid et al, 2000;Alboteanu et al, 2015).…”