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  4. Demonstration of a 5x5 cm(2) self-tracking solar concentrator
 
conference paper

Demonstration of a 5x5 cm(2) self-tracking solar concentrator

Zagolla, V.
•
Tremblay, E.
•
Moser, C.
Freundlich, A
•
Guillemoles, Jf
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2015
Physics Simulation And Photonic Engineering Of Photovoltaic Devices Iv
Conference on Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices IV

Solar concentration is using optics in order to minimize the amount of expensive photovoltaic cell material needed. For concentration factors higher than approximately 4, tracking the sun's position is needed to keep the focal spot on the solar cell. Based on recent developments using a waveguide slab to concentrate sunlight we propose and demonstrate a light responsive, self-tracking solar concentrator. Using a phase change material acting at the focal spot, it is possible to maintain efficient coupling into the waveguide, up to an angular range of +/- 20 degrees. The system uses the unused infrared part of the solar spectrum as energy for the phase change actuator to achieve its high acceptance angle. With a spectrally matched custom silicon solar cell attached to the waveguide slab, in which light is coupled, the visible part of the solar spectrum can be efficiently converted to electricity. A proof-of-concept single lens device was demonstrated in our previous work. Here we extend the principle to a 3x3 lens array demonstration device. The current demonstration device features an acceptance angle of +/- 16 degrees and an effective concentration factor of up to 20x.

  • Details
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Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1117/12.2078775
Web of Science ID

WOS:000353897400009

Author(s)
Zagolla, V.
Tremblay, E.
Moser, C.
Editors
Freundlich, A
•
Guillemoles, Jf
•
Sugiyama, M
Date Issued

2015

Publisher

Spie-Int Soc Optical Engineering

Publisher place

Bellingham

Published in
Physics Simulation And Photonic Engineering Of Photovoltaic Devices Iv
ISBN of the book

978-1-62841-448-6

Total of pages

6

Series title/Series vol.

Proceedings of SPIE

Volume

9358

Subjects

solar concentration

•

self-adaptive

•

phase-change material

•

waveguide

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LAPD  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
Conference on Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices IV

San Francisco, CA

FEB 10-12, 2015

Available on Infoscience
May 29, 2015
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/114743
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