Feasibility for the Use of Flat Booster Reflectors in Various Photovoltaic Installations

John Joachim Gelegenis, Petros Axaopoulos, Stavros Misailidis, George Giannakidis, Maria Samarakou, Bassilios Bonaros

Abstract


The feasibility for the addition of flat booster reflectors to PV panels is techno-economically investigated for various applications (building attached PVs, ground installations, grid-connected or stand-alone units) and various PV types (mono-crystalline and amorphous silicon PV panels). A model developed to this aim is applied to optimize the parameters of the PV/reflector module and to evaluate its applicability according to the solar radiation data of Athens (Greece). The reflectors may lead to significant increase of total incident solar radiation annually, without however to equivalently improve the economy of the system. The several reasons for this are identified (uneven illumination, edge effects, increased cell temperature, cost of reflectors). Promising applications of flat booster reflector proved to be their use in specific building attached photovoltaics (at south facades) and in standalone applications, allowing –in the latter- a better matching between the load and the energy source annual profiles.

Keywords


Photovoltaics; Photovoltaics in buildings; Solar energy management; Booster reflectors; Stand-alone applications

Full Text:

PDF

References


H. Talbor, Mirror boosters for solar collectors. Sol Energy 1996; 10: 111-8.

S. Seitel, Collector performance enhancement with flat reflectors. Solar Energy, vol. 17, pp. 291-295, 1975.

M. Rönnelid, B. Karlsson, P. Krohn and J. Wennerberg, Booster reflector for PV modules in Sweden. Prog Photovolt: Res Appl, vol. 8, pp. 279-91, 2000.

A. Helgesson, P. Krohn and B. Karlsson, PV-panel with an overedge reflector for stand alone systems. Presented at the "PV in Europe - From PV technology to energy solutions, Conference and exhibition", Rome, Italy; Oct 2002

J. Duffie and W. Beckman, Solar engineering of thermal processes. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1991, p. 77-107.

Lj. Kostic, T. Pavlovic and Z. Pavlovic, Influence of reflectance from flat aluminum concentrators on energy efficiency of PV/Thermal collector. Applied Energy, vol. 87, pp. 410-416, 2010.

T. Matsushima, T. Setaka and S. Muroyama, Concentrating solar module with horizontal reflectors. Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, vol. 75, pp. 603-612, 2003.

H. Tabaei and M. Ameri, The Effect of Booster Reflectors on the Photovoltaic Water Pumping System Performance, J. Sol. Energy Eng. Vol. 134, No 1, 2011.

Mulk Enpar, Renewable Energy. Alubond PV booster mirror [available at the Web at http://www.mulkre.com/pv_booster.html visited at May 22, 2014]

D. Haugen, Solar PV Manufacturing Comes To Minnesota. Twin Cities Business, September 2010 [available at the Web at http://tcbmag.com/Industries/Energy/Solar-PV-Manufacturing-Comes-to-Minnesota visited at June 2014]

ten K Solar, 2014 Industry leading rooftop performance [available at the Web at http://tenksolar.com/solutions/rooftop/ visited at June 2014]

CCRES (Croatian Center for Renewable Energy Sources). Floating Tracking Cooling Concentrator (FTCC) [available at the Web at http://solarserdar.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/floating-tracking-cooling-concentrator-ftcc/ visited at June 2014]

Ch. Thurston, From land to water. PV magazine, issue 4, 2012

Lj. Kostic, T. Pavlovic and Z. Pavlovic, Optimal design of orientation of PV/T collector with reflectors. Applied Energy, vol. 87, pp. 3023-3029, 2010.

Gelegenis J., Misailidis St. Combined use of PV-panels with flat reflectors for roof installations. In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Applied Energy. Perugia, Italy; 2011

E. Georgoulas, Analysis of amorphous silicon photovoltaic panels operation under partial shading conditions. Diploma Thesis. National Technical University of Athens, 2013.

A. Ioannou, N. Stefanakis and A. Boudouvis, Design optimization of residential grid-connected photovoltaics on rooftops. Energy and Buildings, vol. 76, pp. 588–596, 2014.

P. Defaix, W.G.J.H.M. van Sark and Worrell E. E. de Visser, Technical potential for photovoltaics on buildings in the EU-27. Solar Energy, vol. 86, pp. 2644–2653, 2012.

D. Chemisana, Building Integrated Concentrating Photovoltaics: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 15, pp. 603–611, 2011.

B. Jellea and C. Breivik, State-of-the-art building integrated photovoltaics. Energy Procedia, vol. 20, pp. 68 – 77, 2012.

European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) [available at the Web at http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/apps4/pvest.php visited at August 2014]

G. Di Francia, On the Cost of Photovoltaic Electricity for Small Residential Plants in the European Union. International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, vol. 4, no. 3, 2014.

D. Thevenard and K. Haddad, Ground reflectivity in the context of building energy simulation. Energy and Buildings, vol. 38, pp. 972-980, 2006.

G. Steffy, Architectural lighting design. John Wiley & Sons, 2002.

CPAA (Concrete Polishing Association of America). Definitions. [available at the Web at http://www.concretepolishingassociation.com/glossary.php, visited at September 2014]

SCOFIELD. How to specify polished concrete [available at the Web at http://www.scofield.com/how-to-spec-polished-concrete.html visited at September 2014]

H. Saha, Design of a photovoltaic electric power system for an Indian village. Solar Energy, vol. 27, pp. 103-107, 1981.

E. Tzen, K. Perrakis and P. Baltas, Design of a stand alone PV-desalination system for rural areas, Desalination, vol. 119, pp. 327-334, 1998.

L. Barra, S. Catalanotti, F. Fontana and F. Lavorante, An analytical method to determine the optimal size of a photovoltaic plant, Solar Energy, vol. 33. no. 6, pp. 509-514. 1984.

P. Groumpos and G. Papageorgiou, An optimal sizing method for stand-alone photovoltaic power systems, Solar Energy, vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 341-351, 1987.

T. Markvart, Sizing of hybrid photovoltaic-wind energy systems. Solar Energy, vol. 51. No. 4. pp. 277-281, 1996.

A. Balouktsis, T. Karapantsios, A. Antoniadis, D. Paschaloudis, A. Bezergiannidou and N. Bilalis, Sizing Stand-Alone Photovoltaic Systems. International Journal of Photoenergy, Article ID 73650, pp. 1–8, 2006.

N.S. Jayalakshmi, D. N. Gaonkar, A. Balan, P. Patil and S.A. Raza, Dynamic Modeling and Performance Study of a Stand-alone Photovoltaic System with Battery Supplying Dynamic Load, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, vol. 4, no. 3, 2014.

M. Nour and G. Rohani, Prospect of Stand-Alone PV-Diesel Hybrid Power System for Rural Electrification in UAE, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, vol. 4, no. 3, 2014.




DOI (PDF): https://doi.org/10.20508/ijrer.v5i1.1815.g6474

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Online ISSN: 1309-0127

Publisher: Gazi University

IJRER is cited in SCOPUS, EBSCO, WEB of SCIENCE (Clarivate Analytics);

IJRER has been cited in Emerging Sources Citation Index from 2016 in web of science.

WEB of SCIENCE between 2020-2022; 

h=30,

Average citation per item=5.73

Impact Factor=(1638+1731+1808)/(189+170+221)=9.24

Category Quartile:Q4