ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to report on a one-year field test comparison of a concentrator PV system to a fixed flat plate PV module. A concentrator PV module consisting of a Fresnel lens and a Point-Contact Silicon solar cell was mounted on a two-axis tracking system and tested over a one-year period in Northern California (Sunnyvale, CA). The results are compared to a multicrystalline Silicon flat plate module having a fixed southern orientation and tilt angle equal to the latitude (37 degrees). While one would expect that, during the winter months, the concentrator system would perform very poorly due to the small amount of direct sunlight, it appeared that the concentrator actually outperforms the flat plate module almost constantly. The total amount of energy produced by the concentrator is 37% greater than the energy produced by the flat plate on a kWh/m2 basis.
