This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9559, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, Authors, and Conference Committee listing.

The ability to effectively characterize Fresnel lenses over large areas is essential to verifying their system performance and efficiency for concentrating photovoltaics and solar thermal systems. Under high concentration, it becomes challenging to perform detailed spatial and spectral measurements under full sun conditions. We have developed a method to characterize large Fresnel lenses with unknown optical qualities for concentrating solar applications. Our Lens Characterization Unit (LCU) analyzes the resultant pattern of an incident laser beam which may be scanned across the lens. Using the LCU, we can evaluate the portion of refracted light that is concentrated on the receiver area at each incidence point.

Solar concentrating photovoltaic systems have the potential to reduce total cost and achieve higher efficiency by replacing a large solar cell surface with cheaper optical devices, in which a large area of light can be efficiently collected and concentrated to a small optical device and guided to an array of co-located photovoltaic cells with high optical efficiency. We present an experimental demonstration for a lens-to-channel waveguide solar concentrator using a commercially-available Fresnel lens array. In this work, a 60 mm by 60 mm lens to channel waveguide system is used for demonstration. A separate, aluminum-coated 45° coupler is fabricated and attached to the waveguide to improve the coupling efficiency and to avoid any inherent decoupling loss. The fabrication details and component performance of the prototype device are discussed.

Concentrating optics enable solar thermal energy to be harvested at high temperature (<100oC). As the temperature of the receiver increases, radiative losses can become dominant. In many concentrating systems, the receiver is coated with a selectively absorbing surface (TiNOx, Black Chrome, etc.) to obtain higher efficiency. Commercial absorber coatings are well-developed to be highly absorbing for short (solar) wavelengths, but highly reflective at long (thermal emission) wavelengths. If a solar system requires an analogous transparent, non-absorbing optic – i.e. a cover material which is highly transparent at short wavelengths, but highly reflective at long wavelengths – the technology is simply not available.

Low-e glass technology represents a commercially viable option for this sector, but it has only been optimized for visible light transmission. Optically thin metal hole-arrays are another feasible solution, but are often difficult to fabricate. This study investigates combinations of thin film coatings of transparent conductive oxides and nanoparticles as a potential low cost solution for selective solar covers. This paper experimentally compares readily available materials deposited on various substrates and ranks them via an ‘efficiency factor for selectivity’, which represents the efficiency of radiative exchange in a solar collector. Out of the materials studied, indium tin oxide and thin films of ZnS-Ag-ZnS represent the most feasible solutions for concentrated solar systems. Overall, this study provides an engineering design approach and guide for creating scalable, selective, transparent optics which could potentially be imbedded within conventional low-e glass production techniques.

In this work, we investigate the design, fabrication and characterization of a multilayer selective solar absorber made of metallic and dielectric thin films. The investigated selective absorber exhibits theoretical spectral absorptance higher than 95% within solar spectrum and infrared emittance lower than 5%, due to the Fabry-Perot resonance and antireflection effect. In terms of fabrication, different materials are tested under high temperatures in order to obtain the structure with best thermal stability. Structures with different materials are fabricated with sputtering, chemical vapor deposition and electron beam evaporation techniques. The near normal reflectance is characterized with a Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer for these structures before and after heat treatment. Meanwhile, Rutherford backscattering Spectroscopy is employed to analyze the diffusion and oxidation conditions during the heating process. Moreover, better material choice and fabrication techniques are considered to construct solar absorber sample with better high temperature thermal stability.

The design of an efficient and stable solar selective coating for Concentrating Solar Power central receivers requires a complex study of the materials candidates that compose the coating. Carbon-transition metal nanocomposites were studied in this work as absorber materials because they show appropriate optical properties with high absorption in the solar region and low thermal emittance in the infrared. Furthermore metal carbides are thermal and mechanical stable in air at high temperatures.

In this work a solar selective coating was grown by a dual source filtered cathodic vacuum arc. The complete stack consists on an infrared reflection layer, an absorber layer of carbon-zirconium carbide nanocomposites and an antireflection layer. The aim of this research is optimize the absorber layer and for that, the metal content was controlled by adjusting the pulse ratio between the two arc sources. The elemental composition was determined by Ion Beam Analysis, X-Ray diffraction measurements show the crystal structure and the optical properties were characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. The reflectance spectra of the complete selective coating were simulated with the optical software CODE. Bruggeman effective medium approximation was employed to average the dielectric functions of the two components which constitute the nanocomposite in the absorber layer. The optimized coating exhibited a solar absorptance of 95.41% and thermal emittance of 3.5% for 400°C. The simulated results were validated with a deposited multilayer selective coating.

Traditional tubular receivers used in concentrating solar power are formed using tubes connected to manifolds to form panels; which in turn are arranged in cylindrical or rectangular shapes. Previous and current tubular receivers, such as the ones used in Solar One, Solar Two, and most recently the Ivanpah solar plants, have used a black paint coating to increase the solar absorptance of the receiver. However, these coatings degrade over time and must be reapplied, increasing the receiver maintenance cost. This paper presents the thermal efficiency evaluation of novel receiver tubular panels that have a higher effective solar absorptance due to a light-trapping effect created by arranging the tubes in each panel into unique geometric configurations. Similarly, the impact of the incidence angle on the effective solar absorptance and thermal efficiency is evaluated. The overarching goal of this work is to achieve effective solar absorptances of ~90% and thermal efficiencies above 85% without using an absorptance coating. Several panel geometries were initially proposed and were down-selected based on structural analyses considering the thermal and pressure loading requirements of molten salt and supercritical carbon-dioxide receivers. The effective solar absorptance of the chosen tube geometries and panel configurations were evaluated using the ray-tracing modeling capabilities of SolTrace. The thermal efficiency was then evaluated by coupling computational fluid dynamics with the ray-tracing results using ANSYS Fluent. Compared to the base case analysis (flat tubular panel), the novel tubular panels have shown an increase in effective solar absorptance and thermal efficiency by several percentage points.

Concentrating solar power receivers are comprised of panels of tubes arranged in a cylindrical or cubical shape on top of a tower. The tubes contain heat-transfer fluid that absorbs energy from the concentrated sunlight incident on the tubes. To increase the solar absorptance, black paint or a solar selective coating is applied to the surface of the tubes. However, these coatings degrade over time and must be reapplied, which reduces the system performance and increases costs. This paper presents an evaluation of novel receiver shapes and geometries that create a light-trapping effect, thereby increasing the effective solar absorptance and efficiency of the solar receiver. Several prototype shapes were fabricated from Inconel 718 and tested in Sandia’s solar furnace at an irradiance of ~30 W/cm2. Photographic methods were used to capture the irradiance distribution on the receiver surfaces. The irradiance profiles were compared to results from raytracing models. The effective solar absorptance was also evaluated using the ray-tracing models. Results showed that relative to a flat plate, the new geometries could increase the effective solar absorptance from 86% to 92% for an intrinsic material absorptance of 86%, and from 60% to 73% for an intrinsic material absorptance of 60%.

In this paper we introduce an approach to damping intermittency in photovoltaic (PV) system output due to fluctuations in solar illumination generated by use of a hybrid PV-thermal electric (TE) generation system. We describe the necessary constrains of the PV-TE system based on its thermodynamic characteristics. The basis for the approach is that the thermal time constant for the TE device is much longer than that of a PV cell. When used in combination with an optimized thermal storage device short periods of intermittency (several minutes) in PV output due to passing clouds can be compensated. A comparison of different spectrum splitting systems to efficiently utilize the incident solar spectrum between the PV and TE converters are also examined. The time-dependent behavior of a hybrid PV-TE converter with a thermal storage element is computed with SMARTS modeled irradiance data and compared to real weather and irradiation conditions for Tucson, Arizona.

A nanoparticle fluid filter used with concentrating hybrid solar/thermal collector design is presented. Nanoparticle fluid filters could be situated on any given concentrating system with appropriate customized engineering. This work shows the design in the context of a trough concentration system. Geometric design and physical placement in the optical path was modeled using SolTrace. It was found that a design can be made that blocks 0% of the traced rays. The nanoparticle fluid filter is tunable for different concentrating systems using various PV cells or operating at varying temperatures.

Hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV-T) solar collectors are capable of delivering heat and electricity concurrently. Implementing such receivers in linear concentrators for high temperature applications need special considerations such as thermal decoupling of the photovoltaic (pv) cells from the thermal receiver. Spectral beam splitting of concentrated light provides an option for achieving this purpose. In this paper we introduce a relatively simple hybrid receiver configuration that spectrally splits the light between a high temperature thermal fluid and silicon pv cells using volumetric light filtering by semi-conductor doped glass and propylene glycol. We analysed the optical performance of this device theoretically using ray tracing and experimentally through the construction and testing of a full scale prototype. The receiver was mounted on a commercial parabolic trough concentrator in an outdoor experiment. The prototype receiver delivered heat and electricity at total thermal efficiency of 44% and electrical efficiency of 3.9% measured relative to the total beam energy incident on the primary mirror.

In the present work, a wireless two dimensional microcontroller based sun tracker is designed and implemented. The proposed system has three main components namely the controlling unit, the wireless communication system, and the monitoring and recording unit. Controlling features are fully obtained in the present system using an efficient microcontroller based programming environment. Design equations, which are implemented, allow the usage of the system anywhere anytime without extra hardware tracking circuits. The sun tracker continuously calculates the photovoltaic module’s tilt and azimuth angles by using accurate sun movement equations. The system generates the motors controlling signals to allocate the photovoltaic module to receive the maximize amount of solar energy on its surface from sunrise to sunset. For monitoring purpose the output of the movable photovoltaic module and from a south faced fixed module are wirelessly transmitted to the local monitoring system where the data are recorded, analyzed, and published. The proposed system is successfully implemented and tested for long periods under realistic operating conditions and the obtained positioning results are in excellent agreement with the theoretical ones.

Electrowetting control of liquid lenses has emerged as a novel approach for solar tracking and concentration. Recent studies have demonstrated the concept of steering sunlight using thin electrowetting cells without the use of any bulky mechanical equipment. Effective application of this technique may facilitate designing thin and flat solar concentrators. Understanding the behavior of liquid-liquid and liquid-solid interface of the electrowetting cell through trial and error experimental processes is not efficient and is time consuming. In this paper, we present a simulation model to predict the liquid-liquid and liquid-solid interface behavior of electrowetting cell as a function of various parameters such as applied voltage, dielectric constant, cell size etc. We used Comsol Multiphysics simulations incorporating experimental data of different liquids. We have designed both two dimensional and three dimensional simulation models, which predict the shape of the liquid lenses. The model calculates the contact angle using the Young-Lippman equation and uses a moving mesh interface to solve the Navier-stokes equation with Navier slip wall boundary condition. Simulation of the electric field from the electrodes is coupled to the Young-Lippman equation. The model can also be used to determine operational characteristics of other MEMS electrowetting devices such as electrowetting display, optical switches, electronic paper, electrowetting Fresnel lens etc.

Concentrating and spectrum splitting photovoltaic (PV) modules have a limited acceptance angle and thus suffer from optical loss under off-axis illumination. This loss manifests itself as a substantial reduction in energy yield in locations where a significant portion of insulation is diffuse. In this work, a spectrum splitting PV system is designed to efficiently collect and convert light in a range of illumination conditions. The system uses a holographic lens to concentrate shortwavelength light onto a smaller, more expensive indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) PV cell. The high efficiency PV cell near the axis is surrounded with silicon (Si), a less expensive material that collects a broader portion of the solar spectrum. Under direct illumination, the device achieves increased conversion efficiency from spectrum splitting. Under diffuse illumination, the device collects light with efficiency comparable to a flat-panel Si module. Design of the holographic lens is discussed. Optical efficiency and power output of the module under a range of illumination conditions from direct to diffuse are simulated with non-sequential raytracing software. Using direct and diffuse Typical Metrological Year (TMY3) irradiance measurements, annual energy yield of the module is calculated for several installation sites. Energy yield of the spectrum splitting module is compared to that of a full flat-panel Si reference module.

Micro-scale PV technology combines the high conversion efficiency of concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) with the low costs and the simple form of flat panel PV. Some of the benefits of micro-scale PV include: reduced semiconductor material usage; improved heat rejection capacity; and more versatile PV cell interconnect configurations. Spectrumsplitting is also a beneficial technique to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of photovoltaic systems. It spatially separates the incident solar spectrum into spectral components and directs them to PV cells with matching bandgaps. This approach avoids the current and lattice matching problems that exist in tandem multi-junction systems. In this paper, we applied the ideas of spectrum-splitting in a micro-scale PV system, and demonstrated a holographic micro-scale spectrum-splitting photovoltaic system. This system consists of a volume transmission hologram in combination with a micro-lens array. An analysis methodology was developed to design the system and determine the performance of the resulting system. The spatial characteristics of the dispersed spectrum, the overall system conversion efficiency, and the improvement over best bandgap will be discussed.