Static concentrating photovoltaic modelling using MATLAB

Abstract

The world has recorded an increasing interest and staggering investment in renewable technology in the last two decades, specifically in solar photovoltaic (PV). Concentrating PV (CPV) is one of PV’s technology advancements and is gaining popularity for integration in a building. Various CPV designs are currently being investigated by researchers. The aim of this paper is to design and develop a MATLAB programme that can predict the electrical properties of a static concentrator that is designed with a ±40° acceptance angle. The programme was utlizied to determine the angular characteristics of the static concentrator between acceptance angle of -50° and 50°. It is proposed that the optoelectronic gain, Copto-e values be incorporated into the model to simulate a CPV design. The incident angle values (within ±50°) were chosen to demonstrate that the static concentrator could collect solar energy within its designed acceptance angle of ±40°. The current-voltage and power-voltage characteristics are generated for each simulation, and critical parameters such as the maximum power, open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and optoelectronic gain were identified and measured. The programme was found to be able to determine the electrical properties for the static concentrator.