École Nationale Supérieure de
Techniques Avancées

Résumé

The energy sector is currently in a state of change as conventional energy sources are questioned by the need of a new clean and sustainable energy sources that satisfies the global energy demand in the long term. Renewable energies respond to this increasing demand and solar energy is an advanced example of them. Photovoltaic modules are experiencing a steady reduction in their production costs. It is needed that this trend continues and, along, with it, their propagation and expansion in the market continue. One way of reducing production costs is by using concentrators to increase the output of the photovoltaic cells. The studied collector is a CPC(Compound Parabolic Collector) and belongs to the MaReCo (Maximum Reflector Collector) family. Another way, is to increase cell efficiency by reducing its working temperature through active cooling. These are the two of the main corner stones of the PVT collector produced by Solarus. The tests executed shown different ascertainment. First, they underlined that the temperature of the receiver for the Solarus collector is around 170°C, which is pretty good according to the resistance of the components. An other analyse is that a machine-made collector is more powerful since micro-cracks appear during handmade soldering. Then backside of a receiver has, indeed, a higher electrical efficiency thanks to the concentration. According to the mea- surements, this is more efficient to use 1/3 cells for the topside and 1/6 cells for the backside of a receiver, and to use 4 strings instead of 2 strings. Last, the electrical efficiency of the collector seems to be around 15,5%, by calculating the average of the electrical efficiency of three prototypes.