Modeling photon transport in fluorescent solar concentrators

• Published in: Progress in photovoltaics Vol. 23; no. 10; pp. 1357 - 1366
• Main Authors: Parel, Thomas S., Danos, Lefteris, Fang, Liping, Markvart, Tomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bognor Regis Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.10.2015; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Concentrators; Devices; energy; energy conversion; Fluorescence; Optimization; Photons; Photovoltaic cells; photovoltaic systems; Reflection; Solar cells; solar energy; solar power generation; Transport
• ISSN: 1062-7995; 1099-159X
• DOI: 10.1002/pip.2553

Fluorescent solar concentrators (FSC) can concentrate light onto solar cells by trapping fluorescence through total internal reflection. In an ideal FSC, the major obstacle to efficient photon transport is the re‐absorption of the fluorescence emitted. In order to decompose the contribution of different photon flux streams within a FSC, the angular dependent re‐absorption probability is introduced and modeled in this paper. This is used to analyze the performance of different FSC configurations and is also compared with experimental results. To illustrate the application of the modeling, the collection efficiency of ideal devices has also been calculated from the re‐absorption probability and is shown to be useful for estimating non‐ideal losses such as those due to scattering or reflection from mirrors. The results also indicate that among the FSCs studied, the performance of those surrounded by four edge solar cells is close to ideal. The rapid optimization of FSCs has also been presented as another practical application of the models presented in this paper. © 2014 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Re‐absorption models for fluorescent solar concentrators (FSC) have been adapted for systems consisting of FSCs surrounded by four edge solar cells. In order to analyze these devices in detail, angular resolved re‐absorption models have also been developed. It will be demonstrated that the models presented in this paper are an effective method to quantify non‐ideal losses in FSCs and also a valuable tool for the rapid optimization of the power conversion efficiencies of FSC systems.