Study of a micro-concentrated photovoltaic system based on Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ microcells array

Abstract

We study a micro-concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system based on micro solar cells made from a thin film technology, $\mathrm{Cu}(\mathrm{In},\mathrm{Ga}){\mathrm{Se}}_2$. We designed, using the ray-tracing software Zemax OpticStudio 14, an optical system adapted and integrated to the microcells, with only spherical lenses. The designed architecture has a magnification factor of $100\times$ for an optical efficiency of 85% and an acceptance angle of $\pm 3.5°$, without anti-reflective coating. An experimental study is realized to fabricate the first generation prototype on a $5\mathrm{cm}\times 5\mathrm{cm}$ substrate. A mini-module achieved a concentration ratio of $72\times$ under AM1.5G, and an absolute efficiency gain of 1.8% for a final aperture area efficiency of 12.6%.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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