Large installations of CPV are not yet common. Until the end of 2009, about 21MW of CPV systems have been reported as set on Sun (Kurtz, 2009; Extance & Marquez, 2010); large part of them (13 MW) are from one HCPV technology of modules based on Fresnel lenses concentrator developed by Amonix Inc. in the […]

The CPV system is composed of many parts which must cooperate efficiently; generally, the modules or assemblies must follow the Sun in its apparent motion, to ensure the collection of the direct irradiation from the cells, through the optics. The possibility of the concentrators to catch only the direct portion of the sunlight, with an […]

In general, the cells for concentration are assembled on supporting substrates, treated similarly to bare dies in electronic technology. So, the process is completely different to that for standard PV assembling, but can take advantages by the huge progresses, standardizations and experiences collected during the last decades by the electronic devices industry. Depending on the […]

The highest conversion efficiency for solar cells has been obtained with the multijunctions approach. Through epitaxial growth the deposition of crystalline layers of compound semiconductors is possible whenever specific requirements on the lattice parameter are satisfied (Yamaguchi, 2002). Many layers of different semiconductors are stacked in order to create a structure where the first layers […]

High efficiency silicon solar cells have been manufactured since the 80’s (Green, 1987). These cells were manufactured in labs with microelectronic technology steps and with ultrapure crystals, in order to allow for the maximal performances; efficiency in the order of 27% have been achieved for back contact solar cells under around 100x and in the […]

The solar cells used in CPV are made with many different technologies, depending on the kind of used concentrator. In general, for low and medium concentration level, up to about 300 Suns, cells made of Silicon are still used; for higher concentrations, cells based on III-V semiconductors are usually employed; these latter cells allow for […]

The aforementioned solutions and methods to concentrate the light are not the only developed for photovoltaic applications. One important limitation of these designs is the necessity to use tracking structure to follow the sun. This constrain must not be considered always a limitation; indeed, especially for utility scale installations, tracking structure are used for standard […]

The idea to split the sun spectrum in light beams and to drive theem toward different cells of selected material is not new. As well as the idea of concentrating the light, it can be realized in a number of different configurations; the constrains for its implementations are mainly related to the costs of these […]