A Novel Solar Concentrating Dish for Reduced Manufacturing Cost

Abstract

This paper presents a novel solar dish configuration which can attain a high concentration factor and also facilitate substantial on board energy storage while being low in projected manufacturing cost. This is due to minimizing the requirement for extreme rigidity and accuracy in the design, in turn through reducing the cantilever distance from dish to receiver. This is done by using a novel split / recombined focus arrangement, enabling rim angles up to 900, thus bringing the focal point much closer to the dish than standard dishes, which typically use approximately 450. This research is potentially significant for dish Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in general and other emerging CSP systems that require high concentration factors.