Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) technology, by using efficient optical elements, small sizes and high efficiency multi-junction solar cells, can be seen as a bright energy source to produce more cost-effective electricity. The main and basic idea is to replace the use of expensive solar cells with less expensive optical elements made from different materials. This paper aims to give to the readers a rapid and concise overview of CPV and the main characteristics to be considered when designing a CPV system. It reviews the main optical configurations presented in the literature, their advantages and drawbacks, as well as the recent progress in the concentration ratio and the major performances achieved in the field. The paper considers the more recent works, their optical designs, as well as their optical and electrical performances. It also relates the major achievements on the industrial side with the major milestones in CPV developments.

This work aims to create a web-based real-time monitoring system for electrical energy consumption inside a specific residence. This electrical energy is generated from a micro-CPV system lying on the roof of this residence. The micro-CPV is composed of a Fresnel lens as the main optical element, a spherical lens as the secondary optical element, and a multi-junction solar cell. A tiny photovoltaic concentrator system with a geometric concentration ratio of 100× is analyzed in the first part of this study, while the second part is designed to monitor the electricity generated by the micro-CPV system. An ESP8266 controller chipset is used to build the sensing peripheral node, which controls a relay and a PZEM-004T current sensor. As a result, the optical element used has approximately 83% optical efficiency, with an acceptance angle of 1.5°. Regarding the monitoring system, the architecture demonstrates the ability of the system to monitor current and energy consumption in real time using a computer or smartphone and a web server specially designed to continuously update the power consumption profile in a specific smart home environment. The whole electric power consumption monitoring system generally worked well. The monitoring system is configured to provide excellent accuracy for a 0.6% hit.

The study concerns the use of four secondary optical elements (SOE) in a photovoltaic solar concentrator using the same primary optic element: the Fresnel lens. In this work, a detailed optical modeling is applied to analyze the performance of four refractive secondary optical elements: the Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC), the Crossed Compound Parabolic Concentrator (Crossed CPC), the Cone and the Pyramid. Two of the most used materials for manufacturing secondaries are employed, to get a clear idea about the four elements efficiencies and geometrical needs. Efficiencies are compared in term of achieved concentrations, acceptance angle, and the output light power distribution. The geometrical considerations reveal that the length and the input aperture size of the four SOEs increase if the refractive index of the considered material increases. Results show that the pyramid gives the more uniform irradiance distribution and the high optical efficiency whatever the used material, and a largest tolerance angle compared to other authors

Fresnel lens is widely used in concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems as a primary optical element. It focuses sunlight on small solar cells or on the entrance apertures of secondary optical elements. In this work, we present a performance analysis of a non-imaging Fresnel lens as a primary optical element for different values of focal length. Results show, among others, the necessary use a secondary stage of concentration in order to achieve good performances in terms of the uniformity of the flux and a large acceptance angle compared with those of a Fresnel lens used alone.