Planar solar concentrator composed of stacked waveguides with arc-segment structures and movable receiving assemblies

In this study, we proposed a two-staged planar solar concentrator composed of stacked waveguide sheets with arc-segment structure array and movable receiving assemblies, which were transparent and operated in a hybrid tracking approach. The stacked waveguide sheets carrying the newly designed arc-segment structures as TIR collectors could provide a high concentration ratio and coupling efficiency with reasonable tolerance of the incidence angle in the first stage. Then, the following movable receiving assembly composed of light guide channels (LGCs) and compound parabolic collectors (CPCs) laterally slid according to the incidence angles to receive the earlier concentrated light for further concentration and providing the PV cells attached to the ends of CPCs with uniform irradiance in the second stage. The simulation results demonstrated that the optimal model could provide an average efficiency of 0.87, an average uniformity of 0.875, and an average concentration ratio of 738 over a whole year regarding the light source with AM 1.5D wavelengths in the working range of PV cells.