Solar Collector Beam Integration for Wide-Angle PV Concentration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional concentrating solar collectors face challenges in maintaining a large acceptance angle without increasing PV cell size, leading to high production and maintenance costs, and issues with stray light and misalignment of solar concentrator optics.
Innovation Solution
A concentrating solar collector design that uses an array of lenslets to divide and integrate solar light, reducing peak concentration levels and increasing the acceptance angle, while maintaining optimal optical alignment and minimizing production costs through self-forming and self-aligned mirrors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional solar concentrator optics are used to focus light beams, then the PV cell can generate electrical energy efficiently, but the system requires precise alignment and has a limited acceptance angle
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the aperture into multiple segments, each with its own optical element (lens or mirror) that focuses light independently onto the PV cell. This segmentation allows each element to have a relaxed alignment tolerance while collectively providing a large acceptance angle, resolving the contradiction between alignment precision and acceptance angle.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a nested structure where multiple optical elements are arranged in a hierarchical pattern, with each element focusing light to a common focal region on the PV cell. This nesting allows the system to maintain precise focal point alignment while each individual element can tolerate larger angular deviations, thus achieving both alignment precision and large acceptance angle.
2Ease of manufacture
If the PV cell size is reduced to lower costs, then manufacturing expenses decrease, but the focused beam must be smaller and more intense, requiring modified optics
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the optical system into multiple independent elements, the patent can focus light from a large aperture onto a small PV cell without requiring each element to be highly complex. Each segment handles a portion of the light collection, simplifying individual element design while achieving the required concentration ratio for small, cost-effective PV cells.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the optical parameters by using multiple elements with specific focal lengths and aperture sizes that optimize the light concentration ratio. This allows the system to maintain high efficiency with small PV cells while keeping the optical design relatively simple and manufacturable.
3Productivity
If the aperture is filled completely with optical elements, then light collection efficiency increases, but stray light and misalignment issues worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The segmented aperture design allows each optical element to be independently optimized and positioned, reducing cumulative alignment errors and minimizing stray light paths. The gaps between segments can be designed to block stray light while maintaining high light collection efficiency, resolving the contradiction between productivity and harmful factors.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves a uniform light distribution on the PV cell, reducing production costs and maintenance needs, while maintaining high efficiency and power generation capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
an array of first optical elements that divide the solar light into separate beams
Implementation Method 2
a secondary optical system that integrates (superimposes) the separate beams in a defocused state at the image plane, thereby forming a uniform light distribution pattern on the PV cell
Implementation Method 3
PV cell arrays and associated electronics formed on semiconductor substrates, and the electrical energy output from flat collectors
Data Source
AI summary
A concentrating solar collector that utilizes a solar collector optical system to concentrate solar light onto a PV cell (image plane), wherein the solar collector optical system includes an array of first optical elements that divide the solar light into separate beams, and a secondary optical system that integrates (superimposes) the separate beams in a defocused state at the image plane, thereby forming a uniform light distribution pattern on the PV cell. The secondary optical system is positioned at a distance from the aperture plane, whereby the rays of each separate beam leaving the secondary optical element are parallel. The image plane (PV cell) is located at the back focal point of the second image element, whereby all of the separate beams are superimposed on the PV cell in a defocused state. Optional intervening third optical elements are used to increase the acceptance angle.