Proposal of standard test procedures for PV concentrator collectors: experimental results

This paper describes the recent activities carried out in the framework of C-rating project subsidized by the European commission. One of the project tasks is the definition of standard test procedures for rating collectors and C-systems. This paper is focused in the proposal of parameters and test procedures to characterize the optical components of the concentrator systems as independent elements. The methods to obtain the following collector parameters are described: irradiance distribution on the receiver, spectral reflectance/transmittance coefficient, transmission curve, acceptance angle and optical efficiency. To demonstrate the feasibility and validate the proposed methods, experiments with several types of collectors have been carried out. The equipments used and the results of these experiments are presented here.