Incidence solar power analysis of PV panels with curved reflectors

Power generation using renewable energy is attracting attention in order to secure sustainable and eco-friendly energy source. Among them, solar power generation market shows rapid growth. However, due to shadows caused by elevation angle variation of the sun according to season, solar panels should be installed with certain distance between each other in succession, which causes wide unused space. To solve this problem, plane-type reflectors are installed between solar panels. In this paper, the curved reflector type is newly proposed, which can increase the intensity of sunlight incident on the solar panel at high elevation angle of the sun. Experimental results showed that the average sunlight intensity ratio with respect to elevation angle of the sun for the solar panels with no reflector, plane-type reflector, and the proposed curved reflector is 1:1.20:1.23, respectively.