- You are here:
- Home >
- Solar Concentrator
Solar Concentrator
I’m a great believer in the KISS principal, KISS being “Keep it Short and Simple” or more likely when aimed at me “Keep it Simple, Stupid”. Every now again one of those “Now why didn’t I think of that?” things pops up that illustrates the principal beautifully.
The case in point is a new type of solar concentrator called a Light-guide Solar Optic (LSO), due to be trialled on pilot projects later this year. The LSO uses a novel way to capture solar energy and focus it onto a Photovoltaic (PV) cell. Rather than use mirrors or Fresnell lenses, the Solar Concentrator from Morgan Solar uses low profile acrylic and glass optical structures to capture, transport and concentrate sunlight, bouncing the light backwards and forwards within the optical structure itself. Concentrated sunlight is then directed onto tiny slivers of PV material attached directly to the optic.
As you’d expect, the concentrator still needs to track the sun’s position, but in the future that may not even be necessary - there’s research going on at MIT to eliminate the need for trackers by developing special dye coatings that can absorb diffuse light.
By Ray
