A Linear Fresnel concentrating Solar PVT System Design and Test in Korea

A non-imaging linear Fresnel concentrating photovoltaic system with geometric concentration ratio of 5.7 is designed and tested at KIER in Daejeon, South Korea. The optical efficiency of the concentrator was 57% at an effective concentration ratio of 3.2. Only 57% of the concentrating light was illuminating the PV module, therefore, the optical efficiency and effective concentration ratio were lower than the expected values. Furthermore, the lateral distribution of the temperature suggested the non-uniformity of concentrating light possibly due to misalignment or variation in the contour of Fresnel lens along its length. Outdoor current and voltage measurements showed that efficiency reduced from 21.8% to 14.4% under the concentration and resulting higher operating temperatures. The electrical power output of the PV module under Fresnel lens with tracking the sun measured across a load resistance was approximately 4 times higher than the fixed PV module without the Fresnel lens on clear sky winter days in Daejeon, South Korea. The experiences gained from the experiments on the non-imaging linear Fresnel lens concentrator PV will be the first towards developing a large non-imaging linear Fresnel lens concentrating PV system to improve the concentrating PVT system performance in Korea.