Experimental study of low-concentrator photovoltaic systems: electrical and thermal

Photovoltaic (PV) concentrators use lenses or mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto PV cells. This allows for a reduction in the cell area and then significantly reduces in the cost of electricity generated by replacing expensive PV converter area with less expensive optical material. In this paper, an experimental PV low-concentration systems and two photovoltaic concentrators systems were built, the first system consists of a lens which will concentrate the light on a photovoltaic cell; various characteristics of the solar cell practically obtained for various enlightened surfaces Si correspond to the various rates of concentration X. The second experiment was carried out with commercially available PV module, based on reflector mirrors; the incident radiation is concentrated on a PV panel by means of a set of flat mirrors. A concentration X depends on two variables: the slope angle and the reflectors length C. A comparative electrical and thermal study of PVG and the CPV is presented (with and without concentration).