The Use of Fresnel Lenses to Improve the Efficiency of Photovoltaic Modules for Building-integrated Concentrating Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

Nowadays, building-integrated solar systems (i.e. photovoltaic modules installed directly in the façades) and concentrating solar systems are more popular. This paper defines the possibility of using Fresnel lens to improve the efficiency of building integrated photovoltaic modules. Both dynamic simulations (done using TRNSYS software) and experimental results (conducted on dedicated set-up with linear Fresnel lens) were described. It can be concluded, that Fresnel lenses allow improving the overall efficiency of the building integrated photovoltaic systems – during conducted tests, the performance of the tested photovoltaic module increased by about 7%.