Reality: High Performance
It will not be surprising any more, if the CPV prototype equipped with high efficiency III-V multi-junction solar cells shows excellent performance in dry and high irradiation area. The CPV system developed by Daido Steel gives excellent and proved performance in the real field including unsuitable areas to CPV. The above graph is the power generation and uncorrected peak efficiency of 30 kW array installed in Japan, known as cloudy and unsuitable area to CPV. Unlike other common concentrator solar electricity systems, this is not the artificial high performance just after cleaning of optics. The system has never experienced cleaning of concentrator optics since installation.
The secret is self-cleaning effect of our original dome-shaped Fresnel lens structure. Above figure explains how dusts on concentrator optics are effectively washed out by small amount of rainfall. Muddy water flow is captured by “drainage” between lenses and thus avoiding re-contamination onto adjacent lenses. It is said one of a secret tips to record high performance in CPV is frequent cleaning, but this is not true to system equipped with considered optics like Daido Steel’s.
