Concentrator PV Receiver Based on Crystalline Si Cells

The emerging concentration photovoltaic (CPV) technology has a broadly recognized potential in reducing the cost of electric power generation from sunlight and is seen as a key component of the national Solar America Initiative (SAI). However, the low- and mid-concentration CPV has suffered from inherent limitations of traditional optics and a lack of suitable receiver technology since its inception. The proposed project identifies a perfect match between the variety of solar collectors and PV cells and develops a complete CPV solution. The project strives to fill the final gap in the CPV technology by harnessing the novel Slat-Array Concentrator that provides a highly uniform concentrated flux and developing a low-cost, linear PV receiver fully conforming to the concentrator design. The new receiver will be based on inexpensive, off-the-shelf crystalline silicon (Si) cells rather than on highly specialized and costly concentrator cells employed in conventional CPV designs. The resulting CPV technology will capitalize on the mature PV technology and uniquely combine the reliability and performance of Si cells with the most recent advancements in solar concentrator optics. Our approach allows for boosting the power output from conventional Si cells by a factor of 20 while avoiding cell overheating and performance degradation due to the so called