Flat and convex photovoltaic cell collectors

• Main Author: Koo, Guo Qiang.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Alternative, renewable energy sources
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40376
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A study on photovoltaic cell has been carried out. Areas in which the efficiency and performance of the photovoltaic cell can be improved on have been researched and experimented. The aim of the research is to find out how the performance of the cell will be affected by the configuration of the photovoltaic cell i.e. a flat cell as compared to a convex cell with different curvatures. Results showed that convex cell has the ability to intercept more incident radiation during periods when the hour angle is high when compared to a flat cell. This is due to a change in projected area of the cell. The ability of the convex cell to intercept more incident radiation translates to a greater total power output throughout the duration of the day. When the curvature (K) is increased, the amount of voltage and current generated increases (12.8% to 61.7%) and (1.8% to 23.7%) respectively and there is also an increase (17.6% to 100.3%) in power generated. Generally, the cell efficiencies (eff) increases from 0.49% to 2.17%. From this study, it was found that the convex cell with K = 37.0 had the best performance (eff = 2.17%) amongst the cells.