Nonimaging design of a high efficient photovoltaic concentrator with 1000 X concentration

To design a high gain concentrator with high efficient, light weight, low aspect ratio and good uniformity of solar cell illumination for a high concentration photovoltaic system, the SMS (simultaneous multiple surfaces) method was used for simultaneous design of total internal reflection optical surfaces and refraction optical surfaces on the basis of conservation of etendue and edge-ray principle. In realizing that, the optical surface profiles of the concentrator was calculated and optimized using numeric method to complete the design of the concentrator including a primary lens and a secondary lens. The optimized concentrator has 1000 X concentration, an aspect ratio less than 0.4 and acceptance angle of 1.5°. Moreover, the result of ray tracing of the concentrator indicates that high efficient more than 85% and good uniformity of the solar cell illumination can be achieved. Therefore, when the designed concentrator is applied to a high concentration photovoltaic system with a 2-axis tracking system, an easy assembly process and high optical efficient can be realized.