Holographic lenses for building integrated concentrating photovoltaics

A volume transmission phase holographic element was designed and constructed to perform as a building integrated photovoltaic concentrator. The holographic lens diffracts light in the spectral bandwidth to which the cell presents the highest sensitivity with a concentration factor of 3.6X. In this way, the cell is protected from overheating because the infrared for which the solar cell is not sensitive is not concentrated. In addition, based on the asymmetric angular selectivity of the volume hologram and based on the linear concentration, only single-axis tracking is needed. The use of the holographic element increases the efficiency of the PV cell by 3% and the fill factor by 8%.