Abstract
The latest external CPC collector (XCPC) is being used in Mongolia and Dubai with great success. XCPC’s offer a big cost advantage over solar collectors that require tracking mechanisms to follow the sun and they can also capture thermal energy on hazy or foggy days thanks to the wide-angle nonimaging optics design. In Ulaanbataar, one of the coldest cities on earth, with air quality best described as “smoke” high temperature operation was achieved during mid winter even in late afternoon. In Dubai, industrial scale operation was achieved at the largest sugar refinery in the world. 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. UC Solar, brings together scientists and engineers from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz in the quest to make solar the nation’s cheapest, cleanest energy option.
© 2014 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
Roland Winston
ATu2J.5 CLEO: Applications and Technology (CLEO:A&T) 2015
G.J. Nathan, Z.T. Alwahabi, B.B. Dally, P.R. Medwell, M. Arjomandi, Z.W. Sun, T.C.W. Lau, and P. van Eyk
JW2A.1 Optical Instrumentation for Energy and Environmental Applications (ES) 2014
Cheng Zheng, Qiyuan Li, Gary Rosengarten, Evatt Hawkes, and Robert A Taylor
RTu3B.2 Optics for Solar Energy (SOLED) 2014