A side-absorption concentrated module with a diffractive optical element as a spectral-beam-splitter for a hybrid-collecting solar system

In this paper, we propose a side-absorption concentrated module with diffractive grating as a spectral-beam-splitter to divide sunlight into visible and infrared parts. The separate solar energy can be applied to different energy conversion devices or diverse applications, such as hybrid PV/T solar systems and other hybrid-collecting solar systems. Via the optimization of the geometric parameters of the diffractive grating, such as the grating period and height, the visible and the infrared bands can dominate the first and the zeroth diffraction orders, respectively. The designed grating integrated with the lens and the light-guide forms the proposed module, which is able to export visible and infrared light individually. This module is demonstrated in the form of an array consisting of seven units, successfully out-coupling the spectral-split beams by separate planar ports. Considering the whole solar spectrum, the simulated and measured module efficiencies of this module were 45.2% and 34.8%, respectively. Analyses of the efficiency loss indicated that the improvement of the module efficiency lies in the high fill-factor lens array, the high-reflectance coating, and less scattering.