Performance improvements in microsystems enabled photovoltaics with wider acceptance angles

Potential performance improvements due to optical designs with higher acceptance angles in systems such as those being developed for the microsystems enabled photovoltaic (MEPV) program are investigated. Higher acceptance angles may be achieved with non-imaging approaches for the concentrating optics. For moderate concentrations of ~100X, calculations based on the angular and spectral distributions of aerosol-scattered light show an improvement of ~0.4-2.3% in the annual average energy produced by increasing the acceptance angle from 2° to 5°, depending on the atmospheric conditions and location of the site under consideration. This performance improvement is mainly due to the larger amount of energy available in the wider cone due to forward scattering from aerosols. There is also a marginal improvement in the efficiency of the cells and modules under the spectra at the wider acceptance angle.