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In accordance with the April 2010 issue of ScienceDaily, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering of the University of California, San Diego, designed a novel solar concentrator that could lead to solar concentrators that are cheaper and need fewer photovoltaic cells than actual solar concentrators. At the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, Jason Karp, the graduate student along with his colleagues introduced the novel concentrator in a paper that appeared in the journal Optic Express in January 2010.

Even though, engineers have developed solar concentrators with high efficiency that comprise of optics in order to focus the sun hundreds of times and can produce twice the power of rigid solar panel, the latest design provides potential new advantages. Existing solar concentrators systems normally make use of arrays of individual lenses that directly concentrate onto photovoltaic cells which all require to be aligned and connected electrically. On the contrary, the latest solar concentrator gathers sunlight with the help of thousands of tiny lenses that are imprinted on the same sheet. Every lens couples into a flat “waveguide” that funnels light into one photovoltaic cell.

Karp made a reduction in materials, alignment as well as assembly by building a working prototype with only two primary components. The solar concentrator designed by Karp is also compatible with low-cost, high-volume manufacturing.

After being announced as the winner for the best poster at the Research Expo 2010, that took place at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, Karp said that the true reason behind their attempt of doing this kind of concentrator is surely for cost. He further explained that his designs have the ability to minimise the cost for the optics that are associated with the whole system. One way to build optics at very cheap price leads engineers to manufacturing techniques that already exist. The novel solar concentrator is compatible with roll-to-roll processing techniques that are involved in the fabrication of large televisions.

It was in the Photonic Systems Integration Laboratory that Karp designed as well as built prototypes for the new solar concentrator. He was led by the professor Joseph Ford, of the electrical engineering department at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

On the 15th of April 2010, at the 29th Annual Research Expo that was held at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, Karp and his solar concentrator were declared the winner of the 2010 Rudee Research Expo Outstanding Poster Award. This research was funded to some extent by the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Source: Science Daily