Photovoltaics and concentrating solar thermal power are two ways for generating electricity from sunlight, albeit through different methods. Parabolic trough style powerplants represent 3.6 GW of electricity production, but many of these plants are aging and being replaced with photovoltaics. An alternative option that could be employed to leverage the sunk capital cost associated with the primary optics would be the design of a pure photovoltaic retrofit working within the existing plant architecture. Here, a secondary optical concentrator is designed to use the existing primary optics of a parabolic trough type solar thermal powerplant. The design is a v-shaped secondary concentrator resulting in a predicted concentration ratio on a 20 mm wide target of 94. The concentrating photovoltaic receiver for retrofit of an RP-3 based parabolic trough has been constructed using multi-junction concentrator photovoltaic cells and experimentally demonstrated here for the first time. Calculated performance of the cells based on cell specifications should result in 31% efficiency at 85 °C. On-sun efficiencies were measured at an average value of 21% with operational temperatures between 55 and 120 °C. Levelized cost of electricity calculations predict the system to have the potential to be below 7¢/kWh based on predicted efficiencies and 13¢/kWh based on the measured values at cell costs of $5/cm².

光伏发电和聚集太阳能热发电是通过日光发电的两种方式，尽管可以采用不同的方法。抛物线槽式发电厂的发电量为3.6吉瓦，但是其中许多发电厂已经老化，并被光伏发电所取代。可以用来利用与主要光学器件相关的沉没资金成本的替代方案是在现有工厂体系结构内工作的纯光电改造设计。在此，次级聚光器被设计为使用抛物线槽型太阳能热电厂的现有初级光学器件。该设计为v形二次浓缩器，可在20毫米宽的目标94上产生预期的浓缩比。使用多结聚光光伏电池构建了用于改装基于RP-3抛物槽的聚光光伏接收器，并在此进行了首次实验验证。根据电池规格计算得出的电池性能应在85°C时产生31％的效率。在55至120°C的工作温度下测得的日照效率平均值为21％。电力平均成本计算根据预测的效率预测系统的潜力将低于7¢/ kWh，根据电池成本为5美元/ cm的测量值，该系统的潜力将低于13¢/ kWh 根据电池规格计算得出的电池性能应在85°C时产生31％的效率。在55至120°C的工作温度下测得的日照效率平均值为21％。电力平均成本计算根据预测的效率预测系统的潜力将低于7¢/ kWh，根据电池成本为5美元/ cm的测量值，该系统的潜力将低于13¢/ kWh 根据电池规格计算得出的电池性能应在85°C时产生31％的效率。在55至120°C的工作温度下测得的日照效率平均值为21％。电力平均成本计算根据预测的效率预测系统的潜力将低于7¢/ kWh，根据电池成本为5美元/ cm的测量值，该系统的潜力将低于13¢/ kWh²。