A commercial solar cell array design

Solar cell arrays designed for space use are not suitable for terrestrial electric power generation applications. The environment on Earth is much different and the commercial price range for these applications is much lower than that for space applications. This paper describes solar cell array designs that provide protection from the terrestrial environment and at the same time bring the array price down from about $100 per watt (space design price) to about $25 per watt. Optical efficiency of the concentrator design is 76 per cent. The thermal characteristics of the arrays have been measured and electrical performance data is presented.