Performance assessment of a high efficiency 1000x concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system

Meeting the growing energy demands in a sustainable fashion is one of the greatest challenges of this century. This projects aims to evaluate a promising renewable energy source: concentrated photovoltaics (CPV). The configuration developed by our partner promises to offer utility-scale solar power at competitive prices, making it a viable alternative. It is based on large steel and glass structures that focus the incident light to reach over 1000x concentration onto a large array of high performance triple junction photovoltaic cells. The viability of this approach depends on structural, optical, optoelectrical, and thermal aspects, that will all be studied in this project. We will experimentally and numerically study the deformations due to meteorological loads, and evaluate their impact on non-uniform illumination of the cell array. The electrical behaviour of the cells under these conditions will then be characterised, along with the cooling performance. Integration of CPV into an urban grid will also be evaluated. If successful, this type of CPV….

Faculty Supervisor:

Mohamed Omri

Student:

Frédéric Légeron, Alexis Vossier, Osvaldo Arenas, Louis-Philippe Parent, Kaabia Bassem, Dominic Larkin, Kaabia Bassem, Sébastien Langlois, Anton Bavdek

Partner:

Gestion TechnoCap Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

Université de Sherbrooke

Program:

Accelerate