SOLAR PANELS FOR CONCENTRATING, CAPTURING, AND TRANSMITTING SOLAR ENERGY IN CONVERSION SYSTEMS

摘要

A panel for concentrating and collecting solar energy. The panel includes light collector assemblies that are positioned side-by-side. Each collector assembly includes a receiver element with an elongate body and a light receiving surface on a first side of the body that has a curved cross section. A concentrating lens extends along the length of the receiver body, and the lens is a flat or arched Fresnel lens adapted to focus incident light onto a long, thin strip along the length of the light receiving surface. A plurality of light transmission sheets or wafers extend along the receiver element body with a first edge of the sheet abutting (e.g., to provide optical coupling) a surface opposite the light receiving surface. Light is captured by the transmission sheets at angles that allow total internal reflectance to transmit the light to a master light sheet for transmission through the panel.