Abstract
Solar concentrators offer good promise for reducing the cost of solar power. Planar waveguides equipped with a microlens slab have already been proposed as an excellent approach to produce medium to high concentration levels. Instead, we suggest the use of a cylindrical microlens array to get useful concentration without tracking during the day. To use only a seasonal tracking system and get the highest possible concentration, cylindrical microlenses are placed in the east–west orientation. Our new design has an acceptance angle in the north–south direction of and in the east–west axis. Simulation of our optimized system achieves a average concentration level from 8:30 to 16:30 with a maximum of and 80% optical efficiency. The low-cost advantage of waveguide-based solar concentrators could support their use in roof-mounted solar panels and eliminate the need for an expensive and heavy active tracker.
© 2012 Optical Society of America
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