Wafer integrated micro-scale concentrating photovoltaics

• Main Authors: Jared, Bradley (Author), Keeler, Gordon (Author), Miller, Bill (Author), Sweatt, William (Author), Paap, Scott (Author), Saavedra, Michael (Author), Das, Ujjwal (Author), Hegedus, Steve (Author), Tauke-Pedretti, Anna (Author), Gu, Tian (Contributor), Li, Duanhui (Contributor), Li, Lan (Contributor), Hu, Juejun (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), MIT Materials Research Laboratory (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics (AIP), 2018-08-22T18:50:49Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Recent development of a novel micro-scale PV/CPV technology is presented. The Wafer Integrated Micro-scale PV approach (WPV) seamlessly integrates multijunction micro-cells with a multi-functional silicon platform that provides optical micro-concentration, hybrid photovoltaic, and mechanical micro-assembly. The wafer-embedded micro-concentrating elements is shown to considerably improve the concentration-acceptance-angle product, potentially leading to dramatically reduced module materials and fabrication costs, sufficient angular tolerance for low-cost trackers, and an ultra-compact optical architecture, which makes the WPV module compatible with commercial flat panel infrastructures. The PV/CPV hybrid architecture further allows the collection of both direct and diffuse sunlight, thus extending the geographic and market domains for cost-effective PV system deployment. The WPV approach can potentially benefits from both the high performance of multijunction cells and the low cost of flat plate Si PV systems.