Low-concentration photovoltaic module with reflective compound parabolic concentrator fabricated by roll-to-roll slot-die coating and 3D printing.

We fabricate a low-concentration photovoltaic (LCPV) module with a reflective compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) using roll-to-roll (R2R) slot-die coating and 3D printing technologies. A highly reflective silver thin-film is coated on a flexible plastic substrate, and the CPC frame is manufactured via 3D printing. The slot-die-coated silver film with thickness of more than 100 nm stably exhibits 95% reflectivity at 550 nm. Further, CPC concentrators with concentration ratios of 4X and 3X are assembled into silicon solar cells and characterized. Although the fill factor and maximum voltage slightly decrease, power and efficiency increase by factors of 3.51 and 2.63 with respect to the no-CPC-module case. Our approach can be used to optimize the design of various engineering products.