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32nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1385-1389, The aim of this work is to report the results of the main characterization activities carried out on the ECOSOLE HCPV prototypal plant realized by BECAR s.r.l. and installed at ENEA Research Center located at Portici in the south of Italy. After a detailed description of the system main components, the experimental results regarding the module characterizations, the tracker accuracy, the system optical acceptance, and the module temperature survey are detailed. The second part of the paper is focused on the explanation of the performance analysis carried out on the basis of the data collected during the first three months of operation. Particular attention has been paid to the performance comparison of the two sub-arrays of the plant: the first one is realized with module using each one its-own inverter, and the second one is realized with a classic centralized inverter solution. At the end, a procedure for a detailed losses analysis is reported and the results obtained for a whole sunny day are explained.

32nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2084-2088, In this work, we have first demonstrated that soiling has a significant effect on the high concentrated photovoltaic system productivity. Next, we presented the integrated cleaning technique we have designed and we currently try to implement on the system. This innovative technique allows first reducing soiling of the HCPV modules, avoid micro-scratches on their glass surfaces and improve their energy productivity. The proposed technique is based on the use of compressed air flux. This study can lead to a final prototype achievement that we propose in terms of perspectives, such as the integration of a dirt sensor and the allocation of automatic control of all the system. These additional improvements would be useful to develop the first Moroccan proper cleaning solution for high concentration photovoltaic panels.

CIRCE system is appropriate to perform a quality control of receivers in production line before being installed in a CPV module

29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2125-2127, In this paper, performance monitoring program is applied to a grid-connected high concentration photovoltaic power plant in order to identify any operational problem and to make sure of its optimal and continuous power generation working conditions. A preventive maintenance plan was also established and proposed for the whole system.

28th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 664-667, This work deals with the thermal analysis of the heat sink relative to a novel high-concentrating photovoltaic system developed in the framework of the European project ECOSOLE. The thermal analysis has been performed taking into consideration two different conditions, namely the worst condition that occurs when the module doesn’t produce energy and the tracker is in perfect alignment with the sun, and the design conditions with the module operating in its MPPT. 3D numerical simulations have been performed using the commercial software Comsol Multiphysics in order to evaluate the temperatures maps relative to the cell and the heat sink in both the considered conditions. Furthermore, the thermo-fluid-dynamics of the air inside and around the HCPV module frame have been characterized by means of 3D numerical simulation performed using the commercial software ANSYS Fluent.

A CMOS sensor fabricated in 0.35μm technology, specifically designed for the monitoring of High Concentration Photo-Voltaic (HCPV) modules, is presented. The microchip was designed to monitor temperature and illumination of each solar cell in a module. Temperature is measured by monitoring the base-emitter voltage of two coupled, diode connected, bipolar transistors, while the illumination sensor is an integrated p-n junction photodiode. A custom communication protocol is implemented in the chip to allow the sharing of a two-wire communication resource among the cells.