concentrated photovoltaics (CPV)
The development of photovoltaics is aimed at further increasing the efficiency of solar cells. One corresponding technology is CPV solar cells, which stands for Concentrated Photovoltaics. This technology concentrates the sunlight onto the solar cell using Fresnel lenses or concave bent mirrors.
As a result, the solar cells receive many times more sunlight and generate correspondingly more energy. The efficiency of CPV solar cells is therefore also over 40 %, in contrast to solar cells made of monocrystalline silicon, whose efficiency is less than 20 %.
Depending on the concentration of sunlight, CPV solar cells are divided into Low Concentration Photovoltaics( LCPV), Medium Concentration Photovoltaics (MCPV) and High Concentration Photovoltaics( HCPV). LCPV solar cells operate with a light concentration of two to one hundred times. These solar cells dissipate the heat generated without additional measures. In addition, the concentration lenses can concentrate sunlight at different angles of incidence on the solar cell.
The MCPV solar cells operate with a light concentration of between one hundred and three hundred times, and the HCPV solar cells have concentration values of up to one thousand times.