A novel 3D compound paraboloid based photovoltaic concentrator

In order to increase the output power of solar cells,a 3D photovoltaic concentrator based on compound paraboloid is designed.Using ray-tracing software,the performances of the new designed 3D concentrator are compared with that of traditional 2D trough collector.The new concentrator's concentration efficiency is more than 90% and concentration ratio is really high when incident rays within acceptance angle of 3D concentrator.Then a concentrator prototype with a nominal half acceptance angle of 35 ° was made and mounted with a poly-silicon solar cell.Under a 400 W/m2 solar radiation,the low cost poly-silicon solar cell achieved a 2.25 times maximum output power comparing with the same bare cell.