A hybrid primary optical component for optical concentrators

Abstract

A hybrid optical component collects and concentrates incident light. The hybrid component includes both refractive and reflective elements. In preferred embodiments, refractive and reflective components focus rays on a common focal plane generally located at the bottom of the reflector where they are absorbed by a device such as a photovoltaic (solar) cell. Additionally, the optical component combines both imaging and non-imaging optical elements into a single device, for improved overall performance.

Description

[0001] priority claim [0002] Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e), this nonprovisional patent application claims the patent application filed on January 17, 2006 by Hines et al., entitled A HYBRID PRIMARY OPTICAL COMPONENT FOR OPTICAL CONCENTRATORS ), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. technical field [0003] The present invention relates to optical arrangements applied to optical concentrating systems such as line or point solar collectors that receive and concentrate incident light onto a target(s). The target may be a device such as a photovoltaic (solar) cell. Background technique [0004] An optical concentrating system, such as a solar collector, concentrates light toward the focal point of the optical system. Generally, there are two types of concentrators. Line condensers focus incident light in one dimension so that the focus is a line. A point concentrator concentrates incident light in two dimensions so that the focal point is a point. [...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, both of these methods place multiple optical elements in series, so the light is redirected by multiple elements before reaching the focal point

The obvious disadvantage of these methods is that they incur the expense and light loss of two separate full-aperture optics

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