Solar Thermal Energy - High-temperature Collectors - System Designs

System Designs

During the day the sun has different positions. For low concentration systems (and low temperatures) tracking can be avoided (or limited to a few positions per year) if nonimaging optics are used. For higher concentrations, however, if the mirrors or lenses do not move, then the focus of the mirrors or lenses changes (but also in these cases nonimaging optics provides the widest acceptance angles for a given concentration). Therefore it seems unavoidable that there needs to be a tracking system that follows the position of the sun (for solar photovoltaic a solar tracker is only optional). The tracking system increases the cost and complexity. With this in mind, different designs can be distinguished in how they concentrate the light and track the position of the sun.