Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

4-4-2011

Publication Title

AIP Conference Proceedings

Publisher

American Institute of Physics

Volume

1407

First page number:

133

Last page number:

136

Abstract

A 1‐axis carousel tracker equipped with four 3‐sun low‐concentration mirror modules has now been under test outdoors at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas (UNLV) for three years. There are three unique features associated with this unit. First, simple linear mirrors are used to reduce the amount of expensive single crystal silicon in order to potentially lower the module cost while potentially maintaining cell efficiencies over 20% and high module efficiency. Simple linear mirrors also allow the use of a single axis tracker. Second, the azimuth carousel tracker is also unique allowing trackers to be used on commercial building rooftops. Third, an experiment is underway comparing aluminum based mirrors with novel 3M Company multilayer polymeric mirrors which are potentially very low cost. Comparing the data from March of 2008 through March of 2011 shows that the aluminum mirror degradation to date is negligible and that the carousel tracker has been operating continuously and reliable. Also, no degradation has been observed for the 3M brand cool mirrors after one year in use.

Keywords

Aluminium; Electric power production – Equipment and supplies – Testing; Mirrors; Multilayers; Polymers; Silicon; Single crystals; Solar energy; Testing procedures

Disciplines

Materials Science and Engineering | Mechanical Engineering | Oil, Gas, and Energy | Sustainability

Language

English

Comments

Conference held: 4–6 April 2011 Las Vegas, Nevada, (USA)

Permissions

Copyright American Institute of Physics. Used with permission.

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