Design and evaluation of a low-cost Photovoltaic system with semi-diffuse structured aluminium reflectors

The current energy production from fossil fuels and nuclear materials has environmental drawbacks. These drawbacks include the creation of nuclear waste, and the pollution associated with fossil fuels which lead to global warming and climate change. It is apparent that an alternative and sustainable source of energy must be found. A potential solution to this problem is solar electricity. Currently, solar panels are expensive and hence un-economical for most buyers. The use of solar concentrators creates a potential for less expensive electricity because concentrators raise the amount of incident radiation over a relatively small area of the absorber. The reduction in cost is achieved by reducing the module area and the use of low-cost reflectors. However, specular reflectors cause high concentrated heating and form hot spots on the solar module cells. These hot spots are a result of uneven concentration of radiation. The overall effect is the reduced fill-factor and overall efficiency of the system. In this paper, we report an alternative solution to the problem of non-even illumination by using locally available low-cost semi-diffuse reflector with four different groove orientations scribed on it so as to scatter the radiation flux onto the module. The groove orientations were plain sheet (NG), horizontal grooves (HG), vertical grooves (VG), and the crisscross groove (CG) orientations. Our results show that the locally purchased semi-diffuse aluminium structure can be used as a booster reflector compared with the commercial high specular reflector.