Wide-angle nonimaging concentrators principles and applications

Nonimaging optics departs from the methods of traditional optical design by instead developing techniques for maximizing the collecting power of illumination elements and systems. Nonimaging designs exceed the concentration attainable with focusing techniques by factors of four or more and approach the theoretical limit (ideal concentrators) allowing non-tracking solar concentrators to attain high temperature operation. Of special interest to the optics community is the deep connection between the “Hottel strings” introduced by MIT professor Hoyt C. Hottel and the flow-line algorithm of nonimaging optics design. We developed the XCPCs, which generate thermal energy by gathering and concentrating sunlight onto specially made collector tubes at the UC Solar Lab at UC Merced.