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Concentrating Solar Collectors

Concentrating solar collectors use shaped mirrors or lens to provide higher temperatures that flat plate collectors.

 

Heliostats are tracking mirrors that reflect solar energy onto a fixed target.

 

This page "concentrates" on providing links, information and plans for Build It Yourself solar concentrators. 

 

See also the Solar Cooking section for more concentrating designs ...

 

Questions? 
Report Broken Links ...

 

Concentrating Collectors
RedRok

Duane Johnson

www.RedRok.com

 

Duane's RedRok site is information central for DIY Heliostats and  concentrating solar collectors.  There are good designs here that can be built on a budget and without exceptional mechanical skills.   The site can be a bit of a challenge to find stuff on, but its worth the effort.
The Aquaflector

http://www.aquaflector.com/

 

 

This is a new and very interesting design for a simple and potentially large area concentrating collector.  Potential applications include generating steam, or concentrating PV cells.

 

 

Looks like a very simple, buildable, well thought out design.

Solar Fire Project

http://www.solarfireproject.com/

 

 

Solar Fire provides detailed plans and how-to instructions for building three different sizes of concentrating solar collectors.

The materials are easily obtainable and the design is simple and straight forward -- the concentrators can be made with readily available materials and simple tools.

The Helios collector provides about 3 KW output and temperatures up to 950C.  Several potential applications are discussed.

HELIOTRACK.COM

http://www.heliotrack.com

 

 

A very good website on building heliostats and concentrating solar collectors.

Good practical design and experimental data and even some kits to help with the tracking.

How to Build a Heliostat for Solar Heating and Lighting,
Rob, www.IWillTry.org

http://www.iwilltry.org/ ...

 

Rob's heliostat -- reflects solar light and heat into a window in your house.
An interesting idea if your house is lacking in south windows.
Some detail provided on the construction.

Inflatable Heliostat

Download full report pdf (3.5 mb)

Mithra and Gary

Mithra (the inventor's) website:
http://www.ricenterprises.org/

Another interesting inflatable idea ...

An experimental, low-cost heliostat design that uses air pressure to focus and support the mirror.
 

Roasting Coffee on Sunshine

How to get articles from Home Power ...

Issue 105 Home Power Magazine

How to build a 1200F solar coffee bean roaster.

Certainly one of the highest and best uses for solar power!

A concentrating Collector made from 116 mirrors of 1 sqft each

 

http://www.ida.net/users/tetonsl/solar/page_iii.htm

 

 

"Teton Engineering's Tracking Solar Concentrator is an array of 116 mirrors, one square foot each mounted on a framework and arranged to reflect sunlight on a "collector", figure 1. The concentrated sunlight can raise the collector temperature to about 1200F"

A very detailed set of plans are included -- !! be careful !!

Understanding Solar Concentrators

VITA paper on concentrating solar collectors

 

VITA paper provides a good deal of information on how a wide variety of concentrating solar collectors work.
SunSpot -- Fresnel Mirror Concentrator

http://www.sunspot.org.uk/ed/

 

 

 

A concentrating Fresnel mirror.

Used as a solar cooker here, but might be used for other concentrating applications.

Scheffler Concentrators -- Large, Concentrating Cooking Collector with Storage

Barli Development Institute
http://www.geocities.com

Another Version in Nepal
http://spot.fho-emden.de/hp/weiler/itahari.html

Good description of Scheffler Reflector Design:
http://www.solare-bruecke.org/ ...

David Delaney article on the Scheffler heliostat cooker design
http://www.geocities.com

These Scheffler heliostats concentrate the sun onto a fixed cooking vessel, or onto a heat storage device that provides for cooking after sunset.

This type of  concentrator can be built with common materials and ordinary skills.   The daily tracking can be by a simple clockwork mechanism, and seasonal tracking can be manual.
The Ultimate Solar Cooker

http://www.inhabitat.com/ ...

How it works:
http://www.solare-bruecke.org ...

 

Solar cooking on a large scale.  84 parabolic concentrators of 9.2 sq meters each.  Capable of cooking 20 to 40 thousand meals a day!

This type of  concentrator can be built with common materials and ordinary skills.  
Solar Sphere -- Concentrating Solar Power

http://www.seao2.com/solarsphere/csp.htm

 

 

An interesting collection of concentrating solar collectors.
Parabola Drawing Tool

http://home.germany.net ...

 

An easy to make tool for drawing parabolas as used in concentrating collectors.
Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector
A concentrating scheme using flat or nearly flat mirrors

Full size prototype test (pdf)

Several papers from Ausra -- a commercial developer of the concept:
http://www.ausra.com/technology/reports.html

An approach that maintains some of the advantages of trough collectors without the need for hard to form parabolic mirrors.

 

 


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