A University of Arizona engineering team led by Roger Angel has designed a new type of solar concentrator that uses half the area of solar (PV) cells used by other optical devices and delivers a light output/concentration that is over 1000 times more concentrated before it even hits the cells.

This comes as a result of a broader goal to make solar energy cost competitive with fossil fuels (target = 1$/W) without the “need for government subsidization.” *

Solar concentrators — optical systems of lenses, reflectors, and photo-voltaics — have been developed before, but for Angel and his team, their innovation was the result of rethinking the entire concentrator concept. This new “energy telescope” focuses incident light, via reflectors, through a ball lens, which then emerges 400 times more concentrated; a second series of funnels then triples this concentration (reaching concentration levels up to 1200 times the “geometric concentration”).

Astronomy professor Angel, who directs the Mirror Lab at the UA Steward Observatory, has been at the forefront of a technological renaissance in telescopes and large optics. His explorations include concepts for imaging and searching for primitive life on Earthlike planets and ways to cool the Earth with myriads of sunshades deployed in space. Most recently, he has developed a prototype of a photovoltaic system with the potential of revolutionizing solar power generation in a way that dramatically increases efficiency and lowers cost.

For the latest news on the REhnu website, the company Mr. Angel formed to get this idea to market click here:
http://www.rehnu.com/news