Photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector

About: Photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8688 publications have been published within this topic receiving 232734 citations.

40% efficient sunlight to electricity conversion

Abstract: Increasing sunlight conversion efficiency is a key driver for on-going solar electricity cost reduction. For photovoltaic conversion, the approach most successful in increasing conversion efficiency is to split sunlight into spectral bands and direct each band to a dedicated solar cell of an appropriate energy bandgap to convert this band efficiently. In this work, we demonstrate conversion of sunlight to electricity in a solar collector with an efficiency value above 40% for the first time, using a small 287-cm2 aperture area test stand, notably equipped with commercial concentrator solar cells. We use optical band-pass filtering to capture energy that is normally wasted by commercial GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple junction cells and convert this normally wasted energy using a separate Si cell with higher efficiency than physically possible in the original device. The 287-cm2 aperture area sunlight-concentrating converter demonstrating this independently confirmed efficiency is a prototype for a large photovoltaic power tower system, where sunlight is reflected from a field of sun-tracking heliostats to a dense photovoltaic array mounted on a central tower. In such systems, improved efficiency not only reduces costs by increasing energy output for a given investment in heliostats and towers but also reduces unwanted heat generation at the central tower. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Planar solar energy converter and concentrator based on uranyl-doped glass

Abstract: A MAJOR improvement of solar cell efficiency is described here which uses a fluorescent plane glass to convert and concentrate the ultraviolet (UV) and blue part of the solar spectrum, thus increasing the possibilities of photovoltaic solar energy conversion. An advantage of our device is that the heat energy coming directly from the Sun will be dissipated over the large area of the glass and only the energy in the visible part of the spectrum will reach the solar cell. Moreover, the excess between the absorbed and band-gap energy which is evolved as heat in the solar cell will be diminished by decreasing the difference in wavelength between the useful and excess energy, and thus the solar cell will be heated to a much lesser extent.