An improvement in a solar energy concentrator which includes
- a generally spherical boiler chamber containing a volatile fluid,
- a turbine operatively connected to said boiler chamber,
- a stationary power plant structure including cantilever members which support said chamber and said turbine in respectively fixed positions,
- a reflector including a frame and a reflecting surface which has both a paraboloidal axis and a focal point, said reflector being positioned so that said point coincides substantially with the center point of said chamber, so that said surface is oriented to face the sun and so that said axis is aligned with said center point and the sun when said surface is so oriented, and
- first and second motive means suitable for imparting motions to said reflector;
- wherein the improvement comprises:
- a base having a variable configuration and comprising an upper surface which forms with level ground an angle substantially equal to the latitude of the site of said base, the higher side of said base, when occurring, being oriented toward the nearer pole of the earth, whereby said upper surface lies in a plane substantially parallel to the polar axis of the earth at any latitude of said site, said base being related to said boiler chamber by a boiler axis which passes through said center point substantially perpendicular to said upper surface, and said base supporting on said upper surface
- a revolving mechanism comprising an arcuate track and a track support, a pivot and a pivot support, and a first plurality of rollers engaged with said track, said track and said pivot being centered on a fixed axis which lies substantially in the plane of the meridian of said site and passes substantially through said center point substantially perpendicular to said boiler axis, said fixed axis thereby being substantially parallel to said upper surface and to said polar axis at any latitude of said site, said mechanism movably supporting by means of said pivot and said rollers
- an oscillating mechanism comprising a frame to which said pivot and said rollers are attached, a plurality of arcuate tracks connected to said frame, and a second plurality of rollers engaged with said tracks, said tracks being centered on a movable axis which passes substantially through said center point substantially perpendicular to said fixed axis, said movable axis thus having rotary motion about said fixed axis in a plane which is substantially parallel to the equatorial plane of the earth at any latitude of said site, and said oscillating mechanism movably supporting said reflector by means of said second plurality of rollers, which are attached to said reflector frame, whereby
- said oscillating mechanism in combination with said first motive means imparts to said reflector an annual oscillatory motion about said movable axis, said motion being substantially counter to the seasonal variation in the inclination of said polar axis with respect to the sun, thereby causing said reflecting surface to incline generally northward when the north pole of the earth is inclined toward the sun and generally southward when said pole is inclined away from the sun, with substantially no inclination at the time of an equinox, while
- said revolving mechanism in combination with said second motive means imparts to said oscillating mechanism and therewith to said reflector a continuous, diurnal revolutionary motion through a substantially semicircular arc about said fixed axis, said motion being substantially counter to the rotation of the earth, thereby causing said reflecting surface to face generally eastward in a horizontal direction at sunrise, generally upward in a direction in the plane of the meridian at noon and generally westward in a horizontal direction at sunset, the combination of said mechanisms and said first and second motive means thus forming
- a carriage which, being supported on said upper surface of said base, movably supports said reflector and imparts to it the simultaneous combination of said motions, the resultant of which is a compound motion of said reflecting surface about said center point, said compound motion being substantially counter to the apparent motion of the sun during the interval between sunrise and sunset on each day of the year;
- and there is thus included
- a coacting combination of said base and a single configuration of said carriage which causes a single configuration of said reflector to follow the sun at any latitude of said site and thereby to concentrate terrestrially received solar energy on said chamber continuously throughout the time from sunrise to sunset on every day of the year at any suitable site in the torrid and temperature zones of the earth.