Concentrated Pv Cell Solar Panel

What are concentrating photovoltaics.

Concentrated pv cell solar panel.

Concentrator photovoltaics cpv also known as concentration photovoltaics is a photovoltaic technology that generates electricity from sunlight. Water use depends on the plant design plant location and the type of cooling system. This can be done by using optical light collectors such as lenses or mirrors. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat solar thermal energy which drives a heat engine usually a steam turbine connected to an electrical power.

Advantages of cpv over normal solar panels. Concentrated solar power csp also known as concentrating solar power concentrated solar thermal systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a receiver. Concentrated pv cpv systems concentrate sunlight on solar cells greatly increasing the efficiency of the cells. Unlike conventional photovoltaic systems it uses lenses or curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto small highly efficient multi junction mj solar cells in addition cpv systems often use solar trackers and sometimes a cooling system to further.

The best commercial silicon solar cells tops at 21 efficiency whereas multiple junctions cells used for cpv can reach 46 and are still improving this gap in performance can be observed at the module level even with high optical losses for cpv. Cpv systems must track the sun to keep the light focused on the pv cells. One of the ways to increase the output from the photovoltaic systems is to supply concentrated light onto the pv cells. Based on the principal that a solar cell receiving more light energy will produce more electricity concentrating photovoltaic solar panels simply involve a method usually using a lens or mirrors to concentrate more sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell.

Monocrystalline solar panels mono and polycrystalline solar panels poly. When you evaluate solar panels for your photovoltaic pv system you will encounter two main categories of panel options. Unlike csp which uses the sun s energy pv solar panels make use of the sun s light instead. Concentrating solar thermal plants csp like all thermal electric plants require water for cooling.

The way this works is that the solar pv cells absorb light which will then knock electrons loose. Both types of panels produce energy from the sun but there are some key differences to be aware of. Requires less photovoltaic material to capture the same sunlight as non concentrating pv. By concentrating sunlight onto a small area this technology has three competitive advantages.

In other words photovoltaics is the direct conversion of light into electricity. The pv cells in a cpv system are built into concentrating collectors that use a lens or mirrors to focus the sunlight onto the cells. However as in all manufacturing processes some water is used to manufacture solar pv components.