Design and performance of a low-cost acrylic reflector for a ~7x concentrating photovoltaic module

Replex Plastics aims to develop a low-cost, low-concentration photovoltaic module using a metallized acrylic reflector designed for use with an inclined single-axis tracker. An asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator is developed and analyzed optimizing the many factors impacting the design, such as tracking strategy, manufacturing process, and cell size. Ray tracing is used to improve the design as well as predict the performance. Results of the simulation closely match the tested performance of the prototype. The final design is an asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator mounted to an encapsulated silicon cell receiver with a system optical efficiency of 60%. The prototype concentrator achieves ~7x increase in power output over an encapsulated receiver with no reflector.