Optical Design and Validation of an Infrared Transmissive Spectrum Splitting Concentrator Photovoltaic Module

Ji, Yaping; Xu, Qi; Riggs, Brian; Islam, Kazi; Ollanik, Adam; Ermer, James H.; Krut, Dimitri D.; Romanin, Vince; Codd, Daniel; Escarra, Matthew D.

doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2716960

Optical Design and Validation of an Infrared Transmissive Spectrum Splitting Concentrator Photovoltaic Module

Journal Article · Wed Jul 12 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2716960· OSTI ID:1462011

Ji, Yaping ^[1]; Xu, Qi ^[2]; ^[2]; Islam, Kazi ^[2]; ^[2]; Ermer, James H. ^[3]; Krut, Dimitri D. ^[3]; Romanin, Vince ^[4]; Codd, Daniel ^[5]; ^[2]

Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA (United States); Tulane University
Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA (United States)
Boeing-Spectrolab Inc., Sylmar, CA (United States)
Otherlab, San Francisco, CA (United States)
Univ. of San Diego, San Diego, CA (United States)

A new modular, hybrid solar power system is designed to generate both electrical and thermal energy by utilizing the full solar spectrum. The key element, an infrared-transparent concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) module, acts as a spectrum splitter, dividing solar radiation into two parts. The ultraviolet and visible light (“in-band”) are converted to electricity with high efficiency in CPV cells, while the infrared light (“out-of-band”) is transmitted directly to a thermal receiver, where thermal power may be converted to electricity by a suitable heat engine or used directly for industrial process heat applications whenever needed. Here, we describe the optical design, modeling, fabrication, and performance validation of this novel spectrum splitting CPV module. A transfer matrix style approach, cumulative transmission model, is built to study the reflection, absorption, and transmission in each layer of the CPV module. To optimize the optical performance, different materials for module superstrate/substrate, encapsulant, cell substrate, and cooling fluids are compared in order to enhance the transmission of out-of-band light through the CPV module by minimizing absorption. Six antireflection coatings along with front and backside electrical contact grids are designed to maximize transmittance of in-band light to the cell and out-of-band light to the thermal receiver. Here, the final design, currently being prototyped, predicts out-of-band light transmission to the thermal receiver of 74.1% (for the passively cooled version) and 65.3% (for the actively cooled version). When epitaxial liftoff technology is applied, the transmission will change to 80.8% (passively cooled) and 71.9% (actively cooled). Experimental prototypes show good agreement with modeled optical performance.

Research Organization:: Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

DOE Contract Number:: AR0000473

OSTI ID:: 1462011

Journal Information:: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Journal Name: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 7; ISSN 2156-3381

Publisher:: IEEE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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