The purpose of this study is to analyze various surfaces of flexible solar panels and compare them to the traditional at panels mathematically. We evaluated the efficiency based on the integral formulas that involve flux. We performed calculations for flat panels with different positions, a cylindrical panel, conical panels with various opening angles and segments of a spherical panel. Our results indicate that the best efficiency per unit area belongs to particular segments of spherically-shaped panels. In addition, we calculated the optimal opening angle of a cone-shaped panel that maximizes the annual accumulation of the sun radiation per unit area. The considered shapes are presented below with a suggestion for connections of the cells.

Date Published: 17 October 2017
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 10379, Nonimaging Optics: Efficient Design for Illumination and Solar Concentration XIV, 103790E (17 October 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2274411

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10379:
Nonimaging Optics: Efficient Design for Illumination and Solar Concentration XIV
Roland Winston; Sarah R. Kurtz, Editor(s)