SOLAR ENERGY CONCENTRATOR ARCHITECTURES
First Claim
1. A solar energy concentrator architecture, comprising:
- a plurality of electro-optical devices capable of deflecting incoming light, said devices arranged into a sheet-shaped beam steering array;
a condenser device arranged to focus said light deflected by said modules; and
one or more PV cells, said electro-optical devices and PV cells arranged such that said condenser device focuses said light deflected by said devices onto said cells.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Solar energy concentrator architectures employ an array of electro-optical liquid prism modules to deflect sunlight onto PV cells. Without any mechanical moving parts, the dynamic liquid prism allows the concentrator to adaptively track the daily changes of the sun'"'"'s orbit. The liquid prism modules may be arranged, for example, into a sheet-shaped beam steering array; a condenser device such as a Fresnel lens is then used to focus the light deflected by the modules onto one or more PV cells—preferably CPVs. Another possible concentrator architecture requires arranging a plurality of liquid prism modules into a semi-spherical pattern, such that light impinging on the modules is directed onto one or more PV cells or CPVs.
-
Citations
30 Claims
-
1. A solar energy concentrator architecture, comprising:
-
a plurality of electro-optical devices capable of deflecting incoming light, said devices arranged into a sheet-shaped beam steering array; a condenser device arranged to focus said light deflected by said modules; and one or more PV cells, said electro-optical devices and PV cells arranged such that said condenser device focuses said light deflected by said devices onto said cells. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A solar energy concentrator architecture, comprising:
-
a plurality of electro-optical devices capable of deflecting incoming light, said devices arranged into a semi-spherical pattern; and one or more PV cells, said electro-optical devices and PV cells arranged such light impinging on said devices is directed onto said cells. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
-
-
9. A solar energy concentrator, comprising:
-
a plurality of liquid prism modules, each of which comprises; a container having a plurality of sidewalls, at least one of said sidewalls being an electrode-containing sidewall comprising; an electrode layer; and a dielectric layer on said electrode layer; and first and second liquids which fill a portion of said container and contact said electrode-containing sidewalls, said first and second liquids being immiscible and in contact with each other at the liquid-liquid interface, such that the contact angle along the liquid-liquid-solid tri-junction line and hence the orientation of the liquid-liquid interface varies with the voltages applied to said electrode layers, such that the naturally-formed meniscus between said first and second liquids functions as an optical prism that deflects light which passes through said meniscus; and one or more PV cells, said modules and cells arranged such that said optical prisms can be oriented to deflect light impinging on said module onto said cells. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
Specification