Construction of a C-PV prototype

Abstract: The following Master Thesis will talk about a C-PV prototype using bifacial PV technology, based on the Solarus Collector. The Solarus Collector consists in two PV cells built on a metallic receiver, where there are some water channels flowing through it, allowing to cool down the PV cells, thus increasing their efficiency. The collector also presents a reflector to provide irradiance to the back part of the receiver, where the other PV cells are located. The new prototype will present bifacial PV cells but not a metallic receiver. This construction aims to reduce the price of the receiver, but will not have a system to cool down the solar cells. This Master Thesis will be developed in the Solarus facilities, in collaboration with the Solarus members. In order to grasp an idea of this prototype, two main procedures will be done. Regarding the bifacial technology, a bifacial PV module will be measured under different conditions, depending on which sides can be illuminated or shaded. On the other hand, a thermodynamic simulation will be carried out on different geometries of the reflector and receiver, in order to figure out the evolution of the temperatures on the new prototype. This simulation will be done with a finite element method, widely known in this applications. The results will show several problems concerning this prototype. Although the measurements of the bifacial PV module will result beneficial and informative, the problem with the temperature will tend to back down this prototype. The lack of some system to cool down the bifacial cells will imply that the receiver could reach unacceptable temperatures. This hypothesis will be drawn under some specific conditions, so they will not be completely devastating to the idea of using bifacial cells, but perhaps a different approach should be used in case it is desired to continue this work.