Concentrator Photovoltaic Qualification Standards for Systems Using Refractive and Reflective Optics: Preprint

This paper describes a proposed international qualification standard for photovoltaic (PV) systems generating electricity from concentrated sunlight. The standard's purpose is to provide stress tests and procedures to identify any component weaknesses in a system. If no weaknesses are identified during qualification, both the manufacturer and the customer can expect a more reliable product. In2002, we began developing the standard, under the auspices of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that would describe testing procedures for concentrator PV systems using reflecting (mirrors) or refractive (lenses) optics for focusing sunlight onto solar cells. The initial draft of the IEC standard was based on the first concentrator PV qualification standard published by theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the United States in 2001. Well-developed U.S. concentrator technologies use refractive optics, and the IEEE standard needed improvement for testing systems with reflective optics. Furthermore, with record III-V solar cell efficiencies above 37%, concentrator PV developers around the world would like to incorporate such cells into theirnext generation of technologies. The paper will highlight significant differences between the proposed IEC standard and the earlier IEEE standard.