Solar concentrating photovoltaic device with resilient cell package assembly

Abstract

A Cassegrain-type concentrating solar collector cell includes primary and secondary mirrors disposed on opposing convex and concave surfaces of a light-transparent (e.g., glass) optical element. Light enters an aperture surface surrounding the secondary mirror, and is reflected by the primary mirror and the secondary mirror onto a photovoltaic cell, which is disposed in a central cavity formed in the optical element. A resilient, optically transmissive material is disposed in the central cavity between the PV cell and the optical element. The photovoltaic cell has a squarish upper surface including metal electrical contact structures disposed on each of the four corners of the upper surface and arranged to define a circular active area. The PV cell is mounted on a heat slug that is disposed in the central cavity during assembly. The heat slug includes resilient fingers that contact the surface of the cavity to facilitate self-alignment of the PV cell.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a solar power generator, in particular to a concentrating photoelectric device. Background technique [0002] Photovoltaic solar collection devices for generating electrical energy generally include flat panel collectors and concentrated solar collectors. A flat panel collector generally includes a PV cell array and related electronic devices formed on a semiconductor (for example, monocrystalline silicon or polycrystalline silicon) substrate, and the electrical energy output from the flat panel collector is directly related to the area of ​​the array, thus requiring a large, expensive semiconductor substrates. Concentrating solar collectors reduce the need for large semiconductor substrates by concentrating light (i.e. sunlight) through the use of, for example, parabolic mirrors or lenses that concentrate the light and can produce an intensity that falls directly onto small PV cells Larger solar beams. Concentrating solar c...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Conversely, when the concentrating optics of a concentrating solar collector produce a relatively small, high-intensity focused light beam 55B that is entirely located on the active area 58, the corners of the active area 58 (e.g., by shaded area 58A1 represented) are inactive (not illuminated), thus wasting these parts of the PV cell 51

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