An external concentrator is provided for use with heat collection elements (HCE's of a solar parabolic trough power plant. In one arrangement, the concentrator includes a plurality of ribs that are adapted to extend radially outward from the outside surface of an HCE and along the linear length of the HCE to help redirect stray/spilled light into the absorber tube of the HCE. In another arrangement, the concentrator includes a shield placed on or near a surface of the HCE opposite of the parabolic reflective trough. The reflective shield includes ribs or brims that are disposed adjacent to one or both lateral edges of a reflective shield applied to the outside surface of a HCE tube to increase the collection of stray light reflected by the reflective trough.

A photovoltaic intensification system includes a solar array stand, further including a mounting base; a mounting column; a solar array frame, a solar array, solar array lenses or reflectors, a light sensor, an elevation actuator, and a horizontal actuator; and a solar system cart, further including: a cart enclosure, a radiant solar cooker chamber, cart reflectors, and cart wheels. Further included are a vertical tilt ring, a strong-arm rod, a mass pivot rod, an elevation actuating ring, a horizontal tilt ring, and mounting brackets. A power and control system for photovoltaic intensification further includes a battery charger, a battery, an A/C inverter, a solar control unit, a remote control, a thermo electric freezer component, and a heat exchanger. A solar control unit includes a light sensor control circuit and a temperature control circuit, or a processor, a non-transitory memory, an input/output, an actuator controller, and a temperature controller.

An solar energy harvester and method for controlling the solar energy harvester, in which an insolation collector is formed of one or more elements each having two opposite major sides, a first side and a second side, and being configured to collect energy from insolation incident on any of the first and second sides. A cradle enables installation of the insolation collector on a roof with the first side generally towards the sun independently of the form of the roof. One or more heliostats reflect insolation to the second side of the insolation collector. A controller controls the one or more heliostats to maintain reflected insolation incident on the collector and to decrease the reflected insolation incident on the collector when necessary to inhibit the insolation collector receiving insolation exceeding given threshold through its first and second sides.

In an embodiment, a solar energy system includes multiple photovoltaic modules, each oriented substantially at a same angle relative to horizontal. The angle is independent of a latitude of an installation site of the solar energy system and is greater than or equal to 15 degrees. The solar energy system defines a continuous area within a perimeter of the solar energy system. The solar energy system is configured to capture at the photovoltaic modules substantially all light incoming towards the continuous area over an entire season.

A solar energy reflector (1) comprises a mirror (5) with no copper layer laminated to a supporting sheet (7) by means of a bonding material (6). The edges of the mirror (5) are provided, at least on a portion forming the major part of their height and closest to the metallic sheet, with an edge protection (8) made of a material comprising silicone, polyurethane and/or acrylic and the material forming the edge protection (8) is different from the bonding material (6).

Linear fresnel solar power system which is transportable in a goods container which comprises a number of rows of reflective mirrors (6), an automatic cleaning system (10), a linear receiver (18) and a support structure designed to be assembled on a commercial goods container (1). In turn, the support structure comprises two foldable lateral platforms (2) capable of adopting two fixed positions, a vertical position, wherein all the elements on the platform remain inside the volume of the structure of the container, thereby allowing for the latter to be transported and/or stored using conventional methods, and a horizontal position that allows for the system to operate as a conventional linear fresnel solar collector. The rows of reflective mirrors (6), mounted on mirror-carrying banks (7), and at least two ballast tanks (11), used as excess weight in order to reduce the necessary foundations, are placed on the foldable lateral platforms (2). The automatic cleaning system (10) comprises movement rails (12), along which central stiffeners (16) move. At least one cleaning unit (15) for each row of mirrors (6) is joined to these central stiffeners (16). In turn, the cleaning units (15) comprise an element manufactured with absorbent materials (13), an upper cover (14) and a water supply system. The linear receiver (18) comprises an external casing (4), end supports (3) and intermediate supports (5). In turn, the external casing (4) comprises a transparent cover (23), insulating means (21), a secondary reflective surface (22) and at least one tubular receiver (9).

A photocatalytic reaction system by collecting sunlight, the system including: a light collector, a light conduction device, and a photoreactor. A transparent protective cover is disposed on the top of a housing of the light collector. A light-collecting convex lens group is disposed beneath the protective cover in the transmission direction of the sunlight. The housing of the light collector is provided with a solar radiation measuring device. An azimuthal main shaft and the pitch main shaft are separately provided with the servo motors and are rotatable in relation to each other by tracking the sunlight under the drive of the separate servo motors. The sunlight collected by the light-collecting convex lens group is converged into a convergent light when passing through the light conduction device and the convergent light is directed to the photoreactor. The photoreactor functions to transmit full-spectrum rays of sunlight.

The invention relates to an apparatus for concentrating cosmic radiation originating from a celestial object, said apparatus comprising: a concentrating optical surface able to reflect incident cosmic radiation toward a target surface OXY, and liable to contain local surface errors and aiming and orientation errors; a system for inspecting the reflective optical surface; means for acquiring images of the optical surface from various viewpoints M.sub.mn (X.sub.mn, y.sub.mn) that are located on the target surface, m varying from 1 to M and n varying from 1 to N, so as to obtain MN images of the optical surface illuminated by the cosmic radiation, with M viewpoints along X and N viewpoints along Y, where M>1, N>1 and M.Math.N30; and a unit for processing the M.Math.N acquired images, which unit is suitable for: calculating the slopes (P)/x and (P)/y for each point P(x,y) of the reflective optical surface, where:

[00001]$\frac{\left(P\right)}{x}=g_X.Math..Math.{\mathrm{.Math.}}_0.Math.\frac{\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{.Math.}}.Math.\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{.Math.}}.Math.\mathrm{sign}\left(x_{\mathrm{mn}}^{}\right).Math..Math.L\left(M_{\mathrm{mn}}^{},P\right)}{\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{.Math.}}.Math.\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{.Math.}}.Math.L\left(M_{\mathrm{mn}}^{},P\right)},.Math.\mathrm{and}$

Broadband reflectors include a UV-reflective multilayer optical film and a VIS/IR-reflective layer. In various embodiments, the VIS/IR reflective layer may be a reflective metal layer or a multilayer optical film. Concentrated solar power systems and methods of harnessing solar energy using the broadband reflectors and optionally comprising a celestial tracking mechanism are also disclosed.

The invention relates to a solar power concentrator (CSP) formed by a series of long flat (Fresnel-type) mirrors oriented in a north-south direction, each mirror having a single east-west axis of rotation, tracking the height of the sun. Together the mirrors reflect the light throughout the day towards a single cylindrical-parabolic mirror which concentrates the solar radiation onto a small area close to the focal line of the parabola on which an absorber is located that heats fluids and/or generates electricity.