Performance comparison of CPCs with and without exit angle restriction for concentrating radiation on solar cells

To perform this comparison, the compound parabolic concentrator with a restricted exit angle of 65° (CPC-65) and the one without exit angle restriction (CPC-90) were fabricated and tested for concentrating radiation on multi-crystalline solar cells. Both CPC-65 and CPC-90 are identical in the acceptance half-angle (20°) and geometrical concentration factor (2×). Theoretical calculations showed that CPC-90 based PV system (CPV-90) annually concentrated about 3-5% more radiation on solar cells as compared to CPC-65 based PV system (CPV-65). For CPV-65, all radiation would arrive on the solar cells at the incidence angle less than 65°, but for CPV-90, about 8-10% of annual collectible radiation would arrive on solar cells at the incidence angle larger than 65°. Measurements at outdoor conditions showed that the CPV-65 performed slightly better than CPV-90 in terms of short-circuit current and power output as the projection incidence angle of solar rays on the cross-section of CPC-troughs (θp) less than the acceptance half-angle, otherwise the CPV-90 did better. Compared to CPV-90, the power output at maximum power points from CPV-65 were slightly higher, and increases of 2.1%, 5.4% and 8.17% were measured for θp = 0°, 10° and 16°, respectively. Analysis indicated that effect of solar flux distribution over solar cells on power output of both CPVs was almost identical and insignificant, and the CPV-65 performed slightly but insignificantly better than the CPV-90 in terms of annual power output except in areas with poor solar resources where the annual power output from both systems was almost identical.