Patterned Glass Cylindrical Lens Arrays for Low-Cost CPV Modules
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional photovoltaic systems are costly due to the high expense of crystalline silicon wafers and expensive tracking and optics systems, making them inefficient on a cost per watt basis.
Innovation Solution
The use of patterned glass cylindrical lens arrays to focus sunlight onto strip solar cells, combined with single-axis tracking systems, reduces the need for expensive materials and optics, allowing for a lower-cost concentrated photovoltaic system with reduced semiconductor material usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If conventional photovoltaic systems use large numbers of crystalline silicon wafers, then photovoltaic module power is achieved, but cost per watt increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the conventional approach of using many small silicon wafers into a segmented lens array system where a single large glass substrate is patterned with multiple cylindrical lens elements. Each lens focuses light onto a corresponding strip solar cell, replacing numerous individual silicon components with fewer, larger-area strip cells while maintaining or increasing total power output.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from two-dimensional planar silicon wafer arrays to a three-dimensional optical system using cylindrical lenses that focus light in one dimension onto elongated strip cells. This dimensional change allows concentration of sunlight along the length of strip cells, reducing the total silicon area needed while preserving power generation capacity.
2Quantity of substance
If concentrated photovoltaic systems use high concentration ratios to reduce silicon material, then semiconductor material usage decreases, but expensive multi-junction solar cells and dual-axis tracking systems are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the optical concentration parameters by using cylindrical lenses with moderate concentration ratios (typically 2-10 times) rather than the extreme concentration ratios (100-1000 times) used in conventional CPV systems. This parameter change allows the use of standard crystalline silicon strip cells instead of expensive multi-junction cells, significantly reducing system cost while still achieving substantial silicon material reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses patterned glass as a cost-effective optical element that replicates the light-focusing function of expensive conventional CPV optics. The patterned glass substrate serves as a template that can be mass-produced using float glass processing techniques, providing a low-cost alternative to precision-machined metal or molded plastic lens arrays used in traditional CPV systems.
3Productivity
If dual-axis tracking systems are used to maximize sunlight capture, then energy collection efficiency is improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts one degree of freedom from the tracking system by using cylindrical lenses that focus light in only one dimension. This allows the system to use single-axis tracking (rotating around the north-south axis) instead of dual-axis tracking, removing the need for the second rotational mechanism while still achieving effective sunlight concentration throughout the day.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the light-focusing function into cylindrical lenses that inherently handle one dimension of light concentration, transferring the tracking requirement from a complex dual-axis mechanical system to a simpler single-axis system. The lens geometry itself provides the concentration function in the vertical dimension, reducing the mechanical tracking complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach significantly reduces the cost per watt of photovoltaic systems by using less silicon and eliminating the need for dual-axis tracking, while maintaining high efficiency through single-axis tracking and self-cleaning properties of the patterned glass.
Implementation Method 1
a lens array comprising a plurality of lenses oriented along a common axis, with each said lens being configured to concentrate incident light in substantially one dimension on the elongate solar cells
Implementation Method 2
Photovoltaic devices are known in the art... convert solar radiation into usable electrical energy
Data Source
AI summary
Certain example embodiments of this invention relate to patterned glass that can be used as a cylindrical lens array in a concentrated photovoltaic application, and/or methods of making the same. In certain example embodiments, the lens arrays may be used in combination with strip solar cells and/or single-axis tracking systems. That is, in certain example embodiments, lenses in the lens array may be arranged so as to concentrate incident light onto respective strip solar cells, and the entire assembly may be connected to a single-axis tracking system that is programmed to follow the East-West movement of the sun. A low-iron glass may be used in connection with certain example embodiments. Such techniques may advantageously help to reduce cost per watt related, in part, to the potentially reduced amount of semiconductor material to be used for such example embodiments.