Title :
Design and fabrication of a new sol-gel based planar solar concentrator for cost effective photovoltaics
Author :
Shanmugam, Mariyappan ; Mouw, Chris ; Friedrichs, Daniel ; Baroughi, M.Farrokh ; Yan, Xingzhong ; Galipeau, David
Author_Institution :
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, South Dakota State University, SD 57007, USA
Abstract :
A planar concentrating solar cell based on a highly transparent sol-gel concentrator, metallic mirrors, and double sided PV devices is described. Highly transparent silica glasses, synthesized by sol-gel polymerization of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), accompanied with an Ag back reflector were used for concentrating sunlight. By using TEOS, hydrochloric acid, ethanol, and water as the precursors for synthesizing sol-gel glass and optimizing the polymerization process, highly transparent glasses with absorption coefficients of as low as 0.1 cm−1 were obtained in a wide wavelength spectrum ranging from 350 nm – 1100 nm. The sol-gel material was cast into desired shape. The proposed planar solar cell was simulated using the data obtained from UV-Vis absorption measurements and it was shown that the proposed design is capable of reducing the area of PV devices up to 75%.
Keywords :
Absorption; Costs; Ethanol; Fabrication; Glass; Mirrors; Photovoltaic cells; Polymers; Shape; Silicon compounds;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2008. PVSC '08. 33rd IEEE
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA, USA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-1640-0
Electronic_ISBN :
0160-8371
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.2008.4922433