Performance Evaluation for Electro-Thermal Cogeneration of Multi-Section Compound Parabolic Concentrator with Slanting Installation

Abstract

Solar non-imaging concentrator is an optical device for static collection of solar radiation with working characteristics such as no need for tracking, high adaptability and easy integration. In present research, an optimally designed M-CPC (Multi-section Compound Parabolic Concentrator, M-CPC) is coupled with photovoltaic modules to construct a solar MCPC-CPV/T (Multi-Section Compound Parabolic Concentrating Photovoltaic and Photo-thermal, MCPC-CPV/T) system with the axial east-west light aperture facing south inclined installation. The radiation collection model, photovoltaic conversion model, and photothermal conversion model of the system were theoretically established, the reliability of the theoretical model was effectively verified by outdoor experiments. The results of the research show that the relative error between the calculated value of the theoretical model and the experimentally measured value for the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of the MCPC-CPV/T system does not exceed 14.94%, and the relative error of the photothermal conversion efficiency does not exceed 8.04%. The MCPC-CPV/T system with the axial east-west light aperture facing south inclined installation helps to improve the efficiency of the photovoltaic conversion, and despite the high temperatures causing a slight decrease in the photovoltaic conversion efficiency, the overall solar energy utilization of the system is still more than 50% with a low economic cost.

Keywords: solar energy, Non-imaging concentrator, CPV/T, photovoltaic, photothermal