Active Solar Concentrators through a Novel Piezoelectric Nanoparticle/Solvent Design

Solar tracking and concentrating are common methods for increasing the total power harvested from a solar collector during the entire day. Traditional sun tracking-concentrating systems use large and bulky static concentrating optics, or high maintenance and expensive active mechanical tracking systems. Both of which, represent a compromise when it comes to efficiency and return of investment time. This research provides proof of concept for a novel design of cheap, light, no moving parts active solar tracker, based on a flat tunable optical prism. Such tracker has the potential of bridging the gap between static and active tracking solar concentrating systems, increasing solar collection efficiency through the entire day, reducing return of investment time.

* This work was carried out for the B,Sc, in Electrical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Zeev Zalevsky at Bar-Ilan University