Development of a Non-Tracking Two-Stage Solar Concentrator Using Nonimaging Techniques: A Dispatchable, Cost-Competitive Renewable Energy Source

• Team: Anthony Zhou, Jonathan Ko, Patrick Liu
• 2017 Siemens Competition 
  • competitor, team of 3

SUMMARY

Worked on a team of 3 over the summer to empirically derive a nontracking solar concentrator shape that produces dispatchable, cheap electricity.

ABSTRACT

Currently, the major challenge in the solar industry is the lack of a cheap, dispatchable energy production system. A novel non-tracking, nonimaging, two-stage solar concentrator is proposed to address this challenge by eliminating costs due to tracking in CSP systems, a highly dispatchable but expensive solar energy system. The concentrator was designed from a defined set of input and output light rays in an iterative process and quantified through mathematical modeling. The non-tracking concentrator was prototyped and tested a 2-D computer simulation, under an infrared lamp, and under the sun in comparison to a parabolic trough control. Results confirm that the concentrator could successfully reflect all incoming light rays within the projected acceptance angle (±13°) onto the absorber. Further, results suggest that the concentrator performs similarly to a tracking parabolic trough within its acceptance angle, but without any additional tracking expenses. Thermal performance and total conversion efficiency was calculated and used to extrapolate the estimated electricity cost. The estimated electricity cost ($1.90/W) is 35% and 58% cheaper than the costs of non-dispatchable photovoltaic ($2.92/W) and conventional CSP ($4.50/W), respectively, offering an exciting alternative that outpaces current solar technologies.