Patent ID: 8190382

Claim:
An analysis tool for a photovoltaic (PV) receiver, comprising: a microprocessor; a memory device; a first data structure stored in the memory device comprising a PV cell characteristic of each PV cell of a PV array; a second data structure stored in the memory device comprising the intensity of illumination striking a predetermined number of points of the PV array; computer instructions for computing the total illumination on each cell in a PV array based on data from the first data structure and the second data structure; a third data structure stored in the memory device comprising an electrical connectivity among each PV cell; a numerical solver that applies Kirchoffs laws to the total illumination on each cell and the third data structure to compute a total output power of the PV array from a total voltage and current output of the PV array; and computer instructions for computing a power output of the PV array by varying the electrical connectivity among each PV cell over a specified distribution of beam intensity patterns.