Design and characterization of flat-plate static-concentrator photovoltaicmodules

Using a ray-tracing program to analyze the characteristics of monofacial-ce ll and bifacial-cell-types of flat-plate static-concentrator photovoltaic m odules revealed that about 90% of the annual irradiation can be collected b y a monofacial-cell module with a concentration ratio of 1.5 and by a bifac ial-cell module with concentration ratio of 2.0. Preliminarily, small modul es were fabricated and dependence of optical performance on light incident angles were measured. The optical collection efficiency of a monofacial-cel l module with a concentration ratio of 1.5 was 87.6% and that of bifacial-c ell module with a concentration ratio of 2.0 was 85.6%. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.