Spectral separation of sunlight for enhanced operability of photovoltaic cells

Fixler, Ohad; Bar-David, Netanel; Zalevsky, Zeev

doi:10.1117/1.3534004

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition the system is now tolerant also to the distance or the absolute location of the optics in respect to the PV cells array (the collecting optics may be placed on a roof of a building while the PV cells in the basement protected from the environmental conditions). The planar waveguides based solution may also allow realization of spectral splitting by adding proper processing of the surface of the waveguides [14].…”

Section: The Proposed Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passive high ratio sunlight concentration configurations

Rudnitsky

Zaban

Zalevsky

2013

J. Eur. Opt. Soc.-Rapid Publ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the day the sun is moving along curved 1-D trajectory across the sky. This is essential a priori information that can be used in order to design passive optics to perform efficient collection of sunlight without tracking after sun's location in the sky. Despite the movement of the sun along its trajectory the optics will collect the energy to the same spatial location where the photo-voltaic cell is positioned. Two novel designs are proposed while the first one is based on waveguides and the second on prisms with high concentration ratio of above 10X. The proposed configurations are validated numerically and experimentally.

show abstract

Section: The Proposed Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passive high ratio sunlight concentration configurations

Rudnitsky

Zaban

Zalevsky

2013

J. Eur. Opt. Soc.-Rapid Publ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Diffractive spectrum splitting systems may utilize physical diffraction gratings, with grooves separated by a distance, or Bragg type gratings, where the refractive index of an optical fiber varies periodically. The use of focusing diffraction gratings to perform spectrum splitting has been studied by Bielawyn 11 and the use of Bragg gratings has been studied by Fixler 12 . Dichroic filters perform spectrum splitting by directing bands of wavelengths to matched PV cells, using filters that reflect or transmit light based on wavelength.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrating and spectrum splitting optical device in high efficiency CPV module with five bandgaps

Taudien

Kern

2013

SPIE Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is a need for a high efficiency low cost solar energy conversion system. Currently, most concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems concentrate the solar spectrum onto triple junction cells to strive for high conversion efficiencies and low cost. Other approaches to high efficiency use spectrum splitting. Triple junction systems are limited in efficiency and spectrum splitting systems are usually too costly for mass production. The objective is to design a spectrum splitting solar concentrator, using reverse ray tracing methods, to overcome the efficiency and cost limitations of current systems by using a single low cost optical device to concentrate and split the solar spectrum onto a large number of target photovoltaic (PV) cells. Dispersive properties of standard optical materials, such as glass or plastic, are utilized to achieve the desired spectral separation. Reverse ray tracing is used to simultaneously optimize the shape of the top and bottom interfaces of the solar concentrator to achieve the desired split spectrum at the target PV cells. Additional strategies to increase system efficiency and minimize optical losses, including draft surface shading and corner rounding losses, are explored. A CPV module, including the spectrum splitting solar concentrator and five PV cells of different bandgaps, is proposed. This spectrum splitting CPV system has a calculated aggregate cell conversion efficiency that exceeds 45%, has the potential to be mass produced, and meets the need for a high efficiency low cost solar energy conversion system.

show abstract

“…Spectral splitting (Fixler et al, 2011;Fisher and Biddle, 2011;Stefancich et al, 2012) enables the operation of single-junction devices to operate within the energy range where they best perform. Because cells operate independently, they can be designed and optimized separately.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waveguide solar concentrator design with spectrally separated light

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A B S T R A C TIn this article, we propose a new solar concentrator based on spectral splitting of sunlight. Spectral splitting has the objective to collect different spectra onto spectrally adapted solar cells for a more efficient use of the Sun's spectrum. Its combination with solar concentration makes an alternative to classical technologies. The proposed concentrator is composed of a diffractive/refractive optical element that spectrally splits and focuses the light onto a waveguide. The light is then conducted by total internal reflection towards the two specific solar cells. The optical concept and optimization of each element is presented in this paper. An adaptation for dye sensitized solar cells is performed. A geometrical factor around 5× is reached. Finally, theoretical optical efficiency, the manufacturing process and experimental testing with a collimated Sun simulator are presented.

show abstract

Spectral separation of sunlight for enhanced operability of photovoltaic cells

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

Passive high ratio sunlight concentration configurations

Passive high ratio sunlight concentration configurations

Concentrating and spectrum splitting optical device in high efficiency CPV module with five bandgaps

Waveguide solar concentrator design with spectrally separated light

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About