Development of a 10 kW reflective dish PV system

A 10 kW reflective dish PV system is under development by SunPower Corporation. Two of these systems are designed for installation at the PVUSA (Photovoltaics for Utility-Scale Application, a consortium of utilities and public entities) test site in CA, USA. The PV modules are monolithic "dense...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tilford, C.L., Sinton, R.A., Swanson, R.M., Crane, R.A., Verlinden, P.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Costs
Glass
Lenses
Mirrors
Optical design
Photovoltaic cells
Proposals
Prototypes
Silicon
System testing
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:A 10 kW reflective dish PV system is under development by SunPower Corporation. Two of these systems are designed for installation at the PVUSA (Photovoltaics for Utility-Scale Application, a consortium of utilities and public entities) test site in CA, USA. The PV modules are monolithic "dense arrays" of ten cells, fabricated and series/parallel connected on a single silicon wafer and mounted on water-cooled cold plates. The cells are point-contact backside silicon, currently of about 20% efficiency at 20 W/cm/sup 2/ [AM 1.5 D, 25 /spl deg/C]. When recent techniques employed in producing smaller cells having 26% efficiency are incorporated, 23.5% module efficiency and 16% system efficiency are projected. The mirrored dish is comprised of 0.3048/spl times/3.048 M (1/spl times/10 ft) curved strips of second-surface low-iron glass mirrors. The tracker is a conventional two-axis design. Focal length is 8.5 m (28 ft); concentration is 250/spl times/. A 1/3-scale 1 kW prototype dish has been built and is undergoing testing at SunPower. This system has demonstrated 13% conversion efficiency at PVUSA rating conditions. Receiver modules are being designed to be applicable in larger central-receiver projects.< >
DOI:10.1109/PVSC.1993.346947