Non-imaging, focusing heliostat

A non-imaging focusing heliostat for effective use of thermal solar energy is proposed. The heliostat consists of a number of grouped slave mirrors, w hich are able to move according to a proposed formula to eliminate the firs t order abet-ration. The master mirror tracks the sun by a proposed rotatio n-elevation mode to project solar rays together with the rest of slave mirr ors into a fixed target. The merit of this design is that it may benefit th e use of solar energy in high temperature applications by allowing a single stage collector to replace a conventional double stage structured it may a lso benefit high concentration applications, e.g., solar powered Stirling e ngines, solar pumped lasers. etc. The feasibility and a reliability test of the proposed method by a prototype heliostat in the University of Technolo gy. Malaysia is reported. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.