Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) devices have the potential to be a major player in the renewable energy market. These devices allow a smaller number of solar cells to be used, because the light is concentrated into a small area. Using fewer solar cells means that more expensive, higher efficiency solar cells can be used. However, a major disadvantage of these devices is that they are bulky and hard to manufacture. In this work, we present a more compact solution that still offers a concentration factor of 6. This solution is also scalable and, once manufacturing methods become mature, the cost to manufacture this device will be lower than traditional solutions.
Refraction, Solar Cells, and Light-guide
Maximum Power Point Tracking, WiFi Communication
React Native, Firebase
Computer Engineer
Justin is an undergraduate Computer Engineer at the University of Central Florida. He currently works at the Student Union implementing technical solutions for students and clients alike. His main focus for this project was the electrical design as well as the embedded code needed for communication between the MCU and the database. In addition, he also fully designed and printed the 3D model required to house the device components. Moving forward, he would like to work in computer vision and machine learning fields as a software engineer.
Photonics
Kyle is a undergraduate student at UCF. His major is Optics and Photonics Science and Engineering. He also works as a software engineer at Ocean Optics where he builds software that helps customers use their spectrometers more effectively. His main focus for this project was fully designing and implementing the optical components required to concentrate sunlight, as well as embedded code on the MCU for sensors of optical components.
Computer Engineer
Matthew is an undergraduate Computer Engineer at the University of Central Florida. He is currently in the College-Work Experience Program at Lockheed Martin as a Reliability Engineer Contractor, specializing in failure data analysis and database and software design. His main focus for this project was the software design of the native mobile application that read data from the online database and displayed statistics on an android application. Matthew recently secured a Reliability Engineer Associate position at the Missiles and Fire Control Branch of Lockheed Martin. He will being working there after graduation.
