Development of high-efficient, low-concentration photovoltaic system

Abstract

More attention is paid to renewable energy worldwide due to the recent Japanese nuclear power plant accident, fossil energy depletion, and global warming. Studies to enhance power generation system efficiency using solar energy are currently carried out actively. Although efficiency can be enhanced using high solar concentration photovoltaic (PV) module through lens or reflectors, the high solar concentrator prices are expensive, and thus some economic difficulty arises in system configuration. This paper has researched a method to enhance low solar concentrator system efficiency using general photovoltaic (PV) module whose price is low. This paper has used a reflective type optical device to raise low solar concentrator system efficiency and lower its price, and has developed a solar tracking system combining an image recognition type and a program type using the difference of brightness. The developed solar tracking system was installed in Asan, Korea in order to check its performance, and generated power amount was measured, according to time. As a result of comparing with a fixed power generation system, this paper found a 28% power generation efficiency improvement on average. © 2015 SERSC.