Paper
15 February 1977 Principles Of The Fixed Mirror Solar Concentrator
John L. Russell Jr.
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
A new concept for a fixed-mirror solar concentrator is described. The fixed, stepped surface of the proposed cylindrical mirror is designed to produce a sharply focused line image regardless of the incident sun direction. This is in contrast with the severe off-axis aberration (hence, poor concentration factor) of a parabolic mirror for all sun directions other than on-axis. It is shown that 1) the heat absorber follows a circular path to remain in the focus as the sun moves, 2) the annual light losses from self-shadowing of the "stepped structure of the mirror surface can amount to less than %in for appropriate mirror orientation, 3) by facing the mirror in a southerly direction in the northern hemisphere) , the winter deficit in sun input can be significantly compensated, and 4) practical concentration factors of around 50 can be achieved with a single stage of concentration, 80 with a second stage of concentration.
© (1977) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
John L. Russell Jr. "Principles Of The Fixed Mirror Solar Concentrator", Proc. SPIE 0085, Solar Energy Utilization II, (15 February 1977); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.954950
Lens.org Logo
CITATIONS
Cited by 9 scholarly publications.
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Mirrors

Sun

Solar concentrators

Solar energy

Receivers

Laser induced plasma spectroscopy

Mirror structures

RELATED CONTENT

High heat flux engineering in solar energy applications
Proceedings of SPIE (November 12 1993)
New ideas for new solar concentrators
Proceedings of SPIE (October 06 1999)
An Educated Ray Trace Approach To Solar Tower Optics
Proceedings of SPIE (February 15 1977)
Performance Of A 3 . 7 Meter Cylindrical Concentrator
Proceedings of SPIE (March 16 1976)
Optical characterization of nonimaging focusing heliostat
Proceedings of SPIE (September 22 2011)

Back to Top