Envisioning Advanced Solar Electricity Generation: Parametric Studies of CPV/T Systems with Spectral Filtering and High Temperature PV

Hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) devices can simultaneously generate thermal and electrical energy,but have been limited to low temperature applications. This is done to avoid performance degradationof the PV cell at high temperatures. While the low temperature approach limits PV losses, it would bedesirable to develop concentrating photovoltaic/thermal (CPV/T) systems which operate at higher tem-peratures where the thermal energy can be utilized for electricity production. In addition to using moreof the sunlight, these systems may help realize low costs as well as dispatchability through thermalenergy storage. Presented here are two primary configurations: the first where the PV cell and thermalsystem are decoupled, and the second where the PV cell acts as the high temperature absorber. The effi-ciency of these systems and their ratio of thermal to electrical energy produced are reported as a functionof architecture, cell bandgap, and thermal system peak temperature. The studies provide a basis to under-stand and compare the performance of CPV/T at different operating conditions and architectures. Theresults indicate that the configurations that utilize recovery of waste heat off the PV cell can achievethe highest efficiency at low concentration ratios, but it remains to be seen if PV cells can survive the tem-peratures necessary. The thermally decoupled case is attractive in terms of efficiency and operating tem-perature of the PV cell, but requires significantly higher concentration ratios. Both configurations canachieve exergetic efficiencies exceeding 40% and greater than 50% of the solar energy converted to dis-patchable thermal exergy.