Mini-dish based hybrid Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system for home use

The highest demonstrated efficiencies in solar power systems are achieved in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems using a two-axis tracking parabolic dish collector (PDC) with a Stirling engine mounted at the focal point (CSP-Stirling System). Such systems have demonstrated 25% efficiency in converting solar energy to electricity. Unfortunately, such systems are also very costly. An alternative system makes use of an array of small (20cm diameter) parabolic collectors with inexpensive mirrors each directing the sunlight to a single optical fiber. The optical fibers from each mirror in the array transport the light to a central receiving unit that converts the light energy to heat for use with the Stirling engine. In addition to the solar heating element, there is also a propane or natural gas heating element that can augment the solar energy when clouds come by or during the evening hours. This system combines the advantages of a CSP-Stirling system with a much less costly solar collection system achieving about 20% solar to useful power (electric plus hot water) conversion in practice. The addition of the propane/natural gas system allows for 24-hour operation and the addition of batteries for electrical storage can serve as an interface to the home or to the grid. Such a system is appropriate for both remote off-grid operation and for on-grid integrated systems.