European Patent Specification: Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR)
European Patent Specification: Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR)
European Patent Specification: Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR)
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Note: Within nine months from the publication of the mention of the grant of the European patent, any person may give
notice to the European Patent Office of opposition to the European patent granted. Notice of opposition shall be filed in
a written reasoned statement. It shall not be deemed to have been filed until the opposition fee has been paid. (Art.
99(1) European Patent Convention).
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0, and -2.5 < CC < -0.5 The receiver cells are generally mounted on a main sup-
Where, as is known, CC is defined as to satisfy : porting surface (CFRP or other, with additional electri-
cally insulating layers), whose other side is directly facing
spherical shape when CC = 0 the cold space, on the opposite of Sun direction. In this
paraboloid shape when CC = -1 5 configuration, the cells are directly mounted on an effi-
hyperboloid shape when CC < -1 cient heat sink that pulls solar heat towards cold space.
[0019] There is no intermediate heat path as usually
[0012] For each geometry of a concentrator module, present when a radiating surface (radiating heat sink) is
there is an optimal value of conic constant CC which en- located on the other side of a sandwich honeycomb struc-
sures a maximal uniformity of the illumination of the re- 10 ture.
ceiver cell. Indeed, the cooling radiating surface (heat sink) is equiv-
[0013] The present invention is no more following the alent to the collection surface, which tends to moderate
same mathematical relationship of Collares and al be- temperature of the cells better than in configurations
cause of the truncation of the concentrator. The cut-off where the radiating surface is smaller or limited to the
at the angle limit is no more abrupt. Collection efficiency 15 cell area.
is decreasing before the cut-off (this is the only draw- [0020] The reflectors according to the invention are
back). The illumination can be optimised to remain rela- generally mirrors made of thin lightweight material. Such
tively uniform. No hot spot is present. as AL, CFRP, Ni. The mirror may be coated with a re-
[0014] US4892593 describes a solar collector com- flective coating such as Al, Ag, or Au.. In a preferred
prising a light funneling trough including a pair of light 20 embodiment, the reflector is made of Al with Ag coating.
reflecting surfaces, a Fresnel lens and a photovoltaic The Ag coating is protected by Si02, Tio2 or MgF2 for
panel. space environment. Otherwise lightweight material may
[0015] This is an important improvement which insures also be used such as thin film of polyimide.
survival of PV cell under concentration and a better effi- The reflector may be flat or curved.
ciency of the cell. 25 The reflectors themselves may be connected to a main
The concentrator according to the invention has the ad- supporting surface. They may be part of the heat sink to
vantage of being well-suited to concentration in one or reduce the temperature of the receiver cell. Thus they
both axis. The concentrator factor (C) can range from 2 provide a cool heat sink that will lower overheating of the
to 10 on each axis but no restriction is made on larger cells.
concentration range. 30 The reflectors may be part of the mechanical structure
Since space application requirement are 2 to 3 degree of the panel They are part of a cellular mlechanical struc-
acceptance on the tracking axis without loss and no hot ture such as honeycomblike
spot, our invention is perfectly suited for that purpose. In [0021] The lens according to the invention is preferably
a non-tracking axis, any solar panel must accommodate a Fresnel lens.
seasonal variation (about 23.5 arcdegrees) with no sig- 35 Its shape may be flat or curved. Its optical function may
nificant loss. This limits the concentration to small values incorporate aspherical curvature (conic constant relative
on that axis. In one of the embodiments no concentration to parabolic or elliptic shape)
is produced on the related axis. However, the present The lens may be part of the mechanical structure They
invention is fully compatible with low concentration (<2.5: may be part of the mechanical structure such as an op-
1) on a non tracking axis and medium concentration on 40 tical face sheet of the cellular structure.
a tracking axis (<15:1). This geometry is perfectly com- [0022] Electrical hardware (cables for instance) may
patible with present requirements for spacecraft solar be accommodated behind the reflectors instead of, as
panel. usual, on an anti-sun-side of the solar panel.
[0016] The overall thickness reduction of the solar con- Such accommodation provides a radiating heat sink sur-
centrator by truncation of the reflectors is also a major 45 face free of harnesses, which tends to improve effective
advantage of the present invention. radiating area and cooling efficiency.
In the preferred embodiment, for instance, the thickness [0023] In a preferred embodiment the concentrator
is reduced of 15% compared to the prior art. Such reduc- module, also comprises a flat perpendicular reflector at
tion affects volume and weight of the solar panel which the center of the module. Such configuration improves
are physical parameters driving space solar panel tech- 50 the mechanical structure of the solar concentrator.
nology. If concentration in both directions is used, a second flat
[0017] Moreover, the module comprises only a front perpendicular reflector may be added.
lens, side walls and a receiver cell, which avoids any [0024] The invention also includes a solar concentrator
additional optical element such as an additional rear lens comprising a plurality of modules and the method of as-
to concentrate the rays on the receiver cell. 55 sembling such modules.
[0018] The receiver cell according to the invention is [0025] Modules may be joined together by mechanical
for example a solar cell such as photovoltaic cells, but means (for instance but not exclusively by electron beam
may be any type of light absorber or receiver. welding) or glued together. They may also be manufac-
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tured directly from a single piece as far as the reflectors (C) resulting flux distribution on the solar cells.
are concerned; direct embossing of a metallic plate or
electroforming may be used. The solar cells may be fixed Figure 2 : solar concentrator wherein
by gluing on a back sheet or directly clamped on the
reflector walls. The back sheet is typically a thin sheet of 5 (A) ray-tracing in the ideal case when no sun
CFRP glued on the backside of the reflector sub-assem- tracking error exists (off-pointing angle = 0 de-
blies and whose radiative properties may be enhanced gree),
by a high emissivity coating (such as ...). The radiative (B) similar ray-tracing with 1.5 degree off-point-
properties of the back sheet may also be improved by ing,
the addition of a black coated honeycomb. 10 (C) similar ray-tracing with 5 degree off-pointing
[0026] The optical face sheet (lens) may be made of showing collection loss,
a single piece or assembled from a mosaic of partial face (D) similar ray-tracing with 3 degree off-pointing,
sheets fixed directly on each concentrator module. In the (E) resulting flux distribution on the solar cells.
case the face sheet is made of a single piece, it is fixed
by gluing or mechanical means to the edges of the solar 15 Figure 3 : solar concentrator of the present invention
panel and to the edges of the modules to act as a stiffener in a preferred embodiment including side-wall reflec-
of the whole panel. Since the face sheet is made of a tors in the middle of the concentrator module for stiff-
transparent material (such as thin glass, silicone, poly- ness enhancement :
mer,...), it does very slightly absorb incoming sun flux.
Consequently, the face sheet temperature is lower than 20 (A) ray-tracing with 3 degree off-pointing,
reflector and PV cell temperatures. In order to accom- (B) resulting flux distribution on the solar cells.
modate for sun and eclipse mode, the thermal differential
deformations are managed by the choice of the materials Figure 4 : solar concentrator including side-wall re-
(Coefficient of Thermal Expansion "CTE" matching and flectors in the middle of the concentrator module and
elasticity) and the assembly technique. 25 side-walls under the reflectors for stiffness enhance-
[0027] In a preferred embodiment, face sheet is made ment.
of stretchable silicone Fresnel lens. The tension of which Figure 5 : several embodiments showing the reflec-
is calculated to ensure good optical and structural be- tors and stiffeners on a 3D model. The lens on the
havior in the hot case (sun illumination). The very high front side and the substrate sheet on the rear side
CTE of the silicone (about 300 microns/m/deg) is partially 30 are not shown for clarity purpose.
compensated by the lower temperature range from hot
to cold case (eclipse), compared to PV cells and reflector (A) 3D geometry of the embodiment depicted in
structure. figure 2.
[0028] In another embodiment, the face sheet is free (B) 3D geometry of the embodiment depicted in
from the edges of the concentrator modules to avoid ther- 35 figure 2 where side-walls are added under the
mo-mechanical stresses. It is attached only to the solar reflectors for stiffness enhancement.
panel edges with adaptative mechanisms (springs, for (C) 3D geometry of the embodiment depicted in
instance) to accommodate the thermal differential expan- figure 4 with side-wall reflectors in the middle of
sion of the optical face sheet with respect to the panel the concentrator module and side-walls under
structure. This embodiment is especially well-suited with 40 the reflectors according to the present invention.
rigid face sheet like plastic or glass material. (D) Same geometry as figure 5 C but low con-
[0029] In order that the invention may become more centration in the other axis is added (bi-direc-
clear there now follows a detailed description of 2 exam- tional concentration) thanks to additional reflec-
ples according to the invention. They are compared to tors/stiffeners in the perpendicular direction.
the state of the art in figure 1 45
Figure 6: geometry of one module
Brief description of drawings
[0031] In figure 1, the concentrator procures a very
[0030] high efficient (close to 100%) of light collection inside the
50 limits of the acceptance angle (+alpha and - alpha). At
Figure 1 : prior art of combination according to Col- 0° off-pointing, the rays converge on the detectors with-
lares and Pereira of lens and reflector for solar out being submitted to a reflexion against the inclined
concentration : side walls of the reflector. No care is taken for the uni-
formity of illumination of the solar cells. So, the collection
(A) ray-tracing in the ideal case when no sun 55 efficiency is 100% but cells are not protected to hot spots.
tracking error exists (off-pointing angle = 0 de- The collection quickly drops off to zero out the limits of
gree), the acceptance angle.
(B) similar ray-tracing with 3 degree off-pointing, [0032] In figure 2, the illumination is optimised to re-
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main relatively uniform. No hot spot is present. As can surface has been suppressed and the reflectors are used
be seen from figure 2A, at 0° off-pointing, the rays con- themselves as supporting structure (as usually does the
verge on the reflectors after a reflexion against the in- sandwich honeycomb structure), supplying their own
clined side walls of the reflectors, except for the rays lo- stiffness to the whole solar panel. In this embodiment,
cated in the central region of the cells which directly im- 5 some additional stiffeners can be added, such as, but
pinge on the detectors. not exclusively, between the reflector walls (figure 3) so
PV cells are 5 mm wide (W = 5 mm) and the module is that they are not located in an area between the solar
40 mm wide (D=40mm). The geometric concentration cells and the sun, but incorporated under the reflecting
factor is 8x. The lens focal length is 37.2 mm. Its conic surfaces. The front face can also be used as a stiffening
constant CC is -1.7 (instead of 0 with Collares, Pereira 10 means of the panel.
et al). The lens is a flat Fresnel lens that is polished fol- [0041] Figure 5 D shows another preferred embodi-
lowing the Fresnel lens etching with 5 micro-prisms per ment of the invention for concentration on both axis. Stiff-
mm. eners use the same geometry as figure 4. The front lens
[0033] The height or thickness of the module is 28 mm. and the reflectors are adapted to produce concentration
According to the design of Collares and Pereira et al., 15 on both axis. Each sub module is made of four inclined
the thickness H should be 33.1 mm. The truncation to 28 reflectors, the lens, the receiver, and the optional stiffen-
mm is based on the optimization of the flux uniformity ers. Among the stiffeners, figure 5 D shows crossed re-
even when the sun light is not perfectly perpendicular to flective side-walls (optional) laying on top of the receiver
the solar panel (off-pointing occurs). The reflector obliq- without degrading the light distribution on the receiver.
uity with respect to the concentrator normal is modified 20 Perpendicular stiffeners/reflectors are specific to con-
in accordance to the height reduction : β = 32° instead centration on the second axis.
of 27.9° following the Collares and Pereira theory.
[0034] Figure 2 depicts the behavior of the preferred
embodiment when off-pointing occurs. The ray-tracing Claims
shows how rays of light are combined to keep the uni- 25
formity of illumination for 0, 1.5, 3, and 5 degree off-point- 1. A solar concentrator module comprising a front lens
ing. A rigorous calculation of the flux profile on the PV on its front face and a receiver cell on its rear face,
cells is proposed (3 degree off-pointing). The acceptance and a reflector between the front lens and the receiv-
angle of the concentrator is high enough for solar appli- er cell, said reflector having inclined sidewalls along
cation (no loss until 3.5 degrees off-pointing on the track- 30 at least two opposite sides of the receiver cell, and
ing axis and 15% loss at 5 degrees off-pointing). For the a flat perpendicular reflector at the center of the mod-
maximal contemplated off-pointing of 5° (figure 2C) the ule, said sidewalls reflectors being truncated to the
rays on one side (the left side in the drawing) do no longer extend that the ratio between the concentrator height
reflect on the corresponding side wall, but they do on the H and the focal length F of the lens is between 0.6
other side (the right side in figure 2C). 35 and 0.9 and the sidewalls of the sidewalls reflector
[0035] In the illustrated embodiment, performances for are inclined in such a way that, for a O° off-pointing,
an off-pointing angle of 5° are the same as for a 3° off- solar rays are reflected on the inclined side walls of
pointing angle in prior art (figure 1B), but for an angle of the reflectors before impinging on the receiver cell
3° the repartition of the flux is incomparably better (figure characterized in that the flat perpendicular reflector
2D and 2E) than in the prior art (figure 1B and 1C). 40 at the center of the module is limited one side by the
[0036] Comparison with prior art (figure 1) is a clear front lens and the other side by the receiver cell, to
evidence of the advantage. Even with an acceptance an- produce a relatively uniform illumination on the re-
gle of 8 degrees (no loss until 8 degrees), the prior art ceiver cell for a range of off pointing acceptance an-
shows very poor uniformity as soon as off-pointing oc- gle superior to zero degree.
curs. 45
[0037] The preferred embodiment structure is also de- 2. A solar concentrator module according to claim 1,
termined to reduce the overheating problems inherent to characterized in that the inclined sidewalls are pla-
other concentrators with such concentration factors. nar.
[0038] Performance of known solar cells is significantly
reduced at high temperature, which tends to use solu- 50 3. A solar concentrator module according to claims 1
tions with low PV cell temperature to keep a higher PV or 2 characterised in that the lens is a Fresnel lens.
efficiency.
[0039] In figure 3, according to the invention, a side- 4. A solar concentrator module according to claims 1
wall reflector has been included in the middle of a con- to 3, characterized in that the receiver cell has an
centrator module to help the structural design of the pan- 55 elongated shape and in that said sidewalls are dis-
el. The illumination uniformity is not pertubed as reported posed at least along two longitudinal sides of the
in the figure. receiver cell.
[0040] In another embodiment, the main supporting
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This list of references cited by the applicant is for the reader’s convenience only. It does not form part of the European
patent document. Even though great care has been taken in compiling the references, errors or omissions cannot be
excluded and the EPO disclaims all liability in this regard.
• US 4892593 A [0014]
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