CPC developed model and validation

A ray trace model will be developed and set up to investigate the performance of a CPC for different climatic conditions. For example in Dublin at 53°N daylight hours varies from about 18 to 8 hours over the course of the year. Due to the long winter nights and cold weather, the average energy requirement in the winter is much higher compared to the summer. The optimized tilt angle for a solar energy system changes throughout the year as illustrated in figure 8 for Dublin and Spain. When investigating the optimum CPC design for different climatic conditions these angles will be taken into account. The ray trace model will be used to determine the optimized CPC shape in order to maximize concentration in a static building component in different types of climatic conditions. This will be completed under task 1.5.