Instituto de energía solar

Concentrator PV (CPV) technology has some features that distinguish it from conventional PV based on silicon cells. One is the use of optics systems to concentrate light in the cell, up to 1000 times the incoming solar radiation, which implies very narrow angular tolerances. Other is the use of very high efficiency solar cells, particularly multi-junction solar cells for the case of High Concentration PV (HCPV), with significantly higher spectral sensitivity. Both characteristics cause common procedures, instruments and equipment used in conventional PV are not applicable to CPV.

The ISI group of the IES has pioneered the development of procedures for CPV characterization and its implementation in instruments and testing equipment, both for the laboratory and the production line. Most of the results and know-how have been transferred to the industry, primarily to a UPM spin-off, Solar Added Value. The most important products resulting from these developments are:

• HELIOS 3198 solar simulator for CPV modules, featuring a highly collimated, large area beam (2 meter diameter)
  
  
• Module Optical Analyzer (MOA), capable to determine the misalignments among lens-cell units in a CPV module
  
  
• HELIOS 3030-XX range of testers allows for CPV cells, receivers, and primary lenses, with laboratory and industrial versions.
  
  
• Triband-spectroheliometer for the spectral characterization of the solar resource as well as indoor light sources.
  
  
• LYSS (Light cYcling Stressing Source) for reliability test of CPV receivers: Transient-mode Thermo -Mechanical Test

1. C. Domínguez et Al. “Solar Simulator for Concentrator Photovoltaic Systems", Optics Express, 16: 19 (2008), p. 14894 - 14901. DOI: 10.1364/OE.16.014894
   
   
2. R. Herrero et Al. "Luminescence inverse method For CPV optical characterization", Optics Express, 21:106 (2013), p. A1028-A1034. DOI: 10.1364/OE.21.0A1028
   
   
3. R. Herrero et Al. “Methodology of Quantifying Curvature of Fresnel Lenses and its Effects on CPV Module Performance”, Optics Express, 23: 19 (2015), p. A1030 - A1039. DOI: 10.1364/OE.23.0A1030
   
   
4. V. Pérez et Al. "Analysis of thermos-mechanical stress effects on CPV receiver under high intensity light cycles".  Proc. of the WCPEC-6 (2014), p. 787 - 788