Using Static Concentrator Technology to Achieve Global Energy Goal

Abdullah Alamoudi, Syed Muhammad Saaduddin, Abu Bakar Munir, Firdaus Muhammad-Sukki, Siti Hawa Abu-Bakar, Siti Hajar Mohd Yasin, Ridoan Karim, Nurul Aini Bani, Abdullahi Abubakar Mas’ud, Jorge Alfredo Ardila-Rey, Radhakrishna Prabhu and Nazmi Sellami
Additional contact information
Abdullah Alamoudi: School of Engineering, Robert Gordon University, Garthdee Road, Aberdeen AB10 7GJ, Scotland, UK
Syed Muhammad Saaduddin: School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Heriot Watt University, Academic City, P O Box 294345, Dubai, UAE
Abu Bakar Munir: Faculty of Law, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Firdaus Muhammad-Sukki: School of Engineering, Robert Gordon University, Garthdee Road, Aberdeen AB10 7GJ, Scotland, UK
Siti Hawa Abu-Bakar: Universiti Kuala Lumpur British Malaysian Institute, Batu 8, Jalan Sungai Pusu, Gombak 53100, Selangor, Malaysia
Siti Hajar Mohd Yasin: Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Malaysia
Nurul Aini Bani: Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Abdullahi Abubakar Mas’ud: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Jubail Industrial College, P O Box 10099, Jubail 31961, Saudi Arabia
Jorge Alfredo Ardila-Rey: Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Santiago de Chile 8940000, Chile
Radhakrishna Prabhu: School of Engineering, Robert Gordon University, Garthdee Road, Aberdeen AB10 7GJ, Scotland, UK
Nazmi Sellami: School of Engineering, Robert Gordon University, Garthdee Road, Aberdeen AB10 7GJ, Scotland, UK

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-22

Abstract: Solar energy has demonstrated promising prospects in satisfying energy requirements, specifically through solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. Despite that, the cost of installation is deemed as the main hurdle to the widespread uptake of solar PV systems due to the use of expensive PV material in the module. At this point, we argue that a reduction in PV cost could be achieved through the usage of concentrator. A solar concentrator is a type of lens that is capable of increasing the collection of sun rays and focusing them onto a lesser PV area. The cost of the solar module could then be reduced on the assumption that the cost of introducing the solar concentrator in the solar module design is much lower than the cost of the removed PV material. Static concentrators, in particular, have great promise due to their ability to be integrated at any place of the building, usually on the building facade, windows and roof, due to their low geometrical concentration. This paper provides a historic context on the development of solar concentrators and showcases the latest technological development in static PV concentrators including non-imaging compound parabolic concentrator, V-trough, luminescent solar concentrator and quantum dot concentrator. We anticipated that the static low concentrating PV (LCPV) system could serve to enhance the penetration of PV technology in the long run to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7—to open an avenue to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030.

Keywords: solar energy; solar photovoltaic; solar concentrator; energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3056/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3056/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3056-:d:235602

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().