Assessment of the Tilt Effect and the Truncation Effect on the energy collection performance of the MultiPro-CPCs in Tokyo

Abstract

Although compound parabolic concentrators (CPCs) are widely used for solar concentration, they only have one degree of freedom in the design of their acceptance angle. To overcome this limitation, a new type of concentrator called MultiPro-CPCs has been developed. These three-dimensional concentrators have multiple compound parabolic profiles, combined with elliptical and rectangular receivers, enabling them to have multiple directional acceptance angles. In this study, the tilt effect, and the truncation effect on the energy collection performance of the MultiPro-CPCs in Tokyo is presented with a comparison to the three-dimensional CPC through ray tracing simulation. The MultiPro-CPCs with an elliptical receiver showed the highest performances, up to twice the collected energy per receiver area of the 3DCPC. Moreover, all truncated MultiPro-CPCs show higher peak performance compared to the non-truncated 3DCPC. The outcomes show the MultiPro-CPCs as better options in the field of concentration when considering high-cost receivers and concentrator height limits.