Abstract:
Total-internal-reflection(TIR) concentrator for solar concentration was designed, and a series of measures was adopted to optimize. Then lots of TIR concentrators was superimposed and assembled on the waveguide slab to form the waveguide concentrating module. Collected by the TIR concentrator array, the sun light incident on the waveguide slab continued to propagate in it, and was absorbed by the photovoltaic cells in the end. The experimental result shows that when the length of the waveguide slab increased from 400 mm to 4 800 mm, the optical efficiency decreased from 88.6% to 40.2%, while the irradiance concentration grew from 212 W/m2 to 980 W/m2. Thus different lengths of the waveguide slab can be selected according to different requirements. While getting the high output power, the area of photovoltaic cells used is decimated. At the same time, the TIR concentrator can be just placed on the waveguide slab, avoiding the demand of aligning strictly the lens array and the waveguide slab, which is convenient in installation and adjustment.