Performance of 1 kWp AIGaAs/GaAs Terrestrial Concentrator Solar Cell Array

A 1 kWp (electrical output power at 100 mw/cm 2 incident power density) concentrating photovoltaic array with 180 square Fresnel lenses and AIGaAs/GaAs concentrator solar cells has been constructed. The AIGaAs/GaAs concentrator solar cells consist of p-AlGaAs/p-GaAs/n-GaAs with an area of 2×2cm 2 . The p-GaAs layer thickness is set at 3–5 µm so as to keep the spreading resistance low. The concentrator cells are passively cooled by natural convection. The maximum output power from the best concentrator cell is 9.1 W with the efficiency of 22.6% at about 125 suns. The array output power of 977 W ( I sc =8.4 A, V oc = 184 V, FF=0.632) has been obtained at 125 suns.