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Efficient Solar Concentrator With A Low-Cost Tracking Mechanism

Background

Solar concentrators used for heating a working gas or fluid have serious trade-offs in terms of the concentration factor attainable (high light concentrations are desirable for achieving high temperatures and, in power generation applications, high thermodynamic efficiencies) versus the cost of mounting and moving relatively large reflective or refractive surfaces and their associated light-absorbing elements in order to track the sun’s movements across the sky.

Description

A University of California, Merced researcher has invented a new type of solar concentrator that greatly reduces the cost of the tracking mechanism while employing a reflective surface with a very large area in relation to the size of the light-absorbing element.

In this new UC Merced concentrator, only the light absorbing element needs to be moved in order to track the Sun, while the reflective surface remains fixed. The geometry of the design guarantees that high efficiencies are maintained.

Moreover, the reflective surface can use a simple half-spherical structure, further reducing the cost of the concentrator. Low-cost technologies also can be used for the light-absorbing element.

Applications

This UC Merced solar concentrator may find widespread use in any application where a working gas or fluid needs to be heated by the sun, particularly in applications where high efficiencies and/or high temperatures are desirable.

Advantages

This solar concentrator design enables higher temperatures and efficiencies as compared to fixed concentrators. At the same time, it greatly reduces the cost of the tracking mechanism by keeping the reflective surface in a fixed configuration. Also, this design permits the use of low-cost fabrication techniques for both the reflector and the absorber components.

Patent Status

Patent Pending

Inventor

Roland Winston
Weiya Zhang