Abstract :
Concentration of solar energy increases the illuminated flux on the photovoltaic (PV) surface thus less PV material is
required. A novel asymmetric compound parabolic photovoltaic concentrator has been characterised experimentally
with a similar non-concentrating system. Different numbers of PV strings connected within the system have been analysed
and a power ratio of 1.62 measured compared to a similar non-concentrating PV panel with the same cell area.
The solar to electrical conversion efficiency of 8.6% and 6.8% was achieved for the non-concentrating panel the concentrating
system, respectively. The measured average solar cell temperature of the PV in the concentrator system was only
12 C higher than that of the similar non-concentrating system with same cell area.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
