A review of the promises and challenges of micro-concentrator photovoltaics

Abstract

Micro concentrator photovoltaics (micro-CPV) is an unconventional approach for developing high-efficiency low-cost PV systems. The micrifying of cells and optics brings about an increase of efficiency with respect to classical CPV, at the expense of some fundamental challenges at mass production. The large costs linked to miniaturization under conventional serial-assembly processes raise the need for the development of parallel manufacturing technologies. In return, the tiny sizes involved allows exploring unconventional optical architectures or revisiting conventional concepts that were typically discarded because of large material consumption or high bulk absorption at classical CPV sizes.