A Side-Absorption Concentrated Module with a Diffractive Optical Element as a Spectral-Beam-Splitter for a Hybrid-Collecting Solar System

An-Chi Wei, Wei-Jie Chang and Jyh-Rou Sze
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An-Chi Wei: Graduate Institute of Energy Engineering, National Central University, Taoyuan 320, Taiwan
Wei-Jie Chang: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Central University, Taoyuan 320, Taiwan
Jyh-Rou Sze: Instrument Technology Research Center, National Applied Research Laboratories, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a side-absorption concentrated module with diffractive grating as a spectral-beam-splitter to divide sunlight into visible and infrared parts. The separate solar energy can be applied to different energy conversion devices or diverse applications, such as hybrid PV/T solar systems and other hybrid-collecting solar systems. Via the optimization of the geometric parameters of the diffractive grating, such as the grating period and height, the visible and the infrared bands can dominate the first and the zeroth diffraction orders, respectively. The designed grating integrated with the lens and the light-guide forms the proposed module, which is able to export visible and infrared light individually. This module is demonstrated in the form of an array consisting of seven units, successfully out-coupling the spectral-split beams by separate planar ports. Considering the whole solar spectrum, the simulated and measured module efficiencies of this module were 45.2% and 34.8%, respectively. Analyses of the efficiency loss indicated that the improvement of the module efficiency lies in the high fill-factor lens array, the high-reflectance coating, and less scattering.

Keywords: solar concentrator; spectral beam splitting; diffractive optical element; diffractive grating (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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