Stowable and deployable concentrator for solar cells
OwnerT. Jeffrey Harvey, P. Alan Jones +1inventors
InventorsT. Jeffrey Harvey, P. Alan Jones, Allister F. Fraser
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Abstract
A stowable and deployable concentrator for solar cells, A flexible, springily resilient Fresnel lens is held in a frame whose relaxed condition holds the Fresnel lens as the linear fragment of a cylinder. When in this deployed shape, the Fresnel lens concentrates energy onto a strip of solar cells, The frame is springily mounted by support means, biased toward the deployed condition, and when the Fresnel lens and frame are pressed toward the cells, they tend to flatten toward a stowed condition.
Claims8
A stowable and deployable concentrator for solar cells, comprising:
- a substrate, at least one Fresnel lens, said lens being flexible and having two parallel sides and two parallel ends;
- a frame holding said lens, at both sides and both ends, said frame where it holds said ends being springily deflectable, tending to hold the lens in a trough-like shape when in deployed condition, and reducing said curvature as its own curvature is reduced to move the lens closer to the substrate and to a stowed condition;
- at least one solar cell mounted to said substrate in the focal area of said lens;
- and
- deflectable support means mounted to said substrate and connected to said frame, said support means being resilient and inherently biased such as to exert a force in opposition between the substrate and the frame to tend to move the frame and the lens away from the substrate to said deployed condition, and to be deflectable by a force exerted on said frame to overcome said bias and move said frame and said lens closer to said substrate in said stowed condition.
A stowable and deployable concentrator for solar cells, comprising;
- at least one flexible circular Fresnel lens, at least one said lens being domed;
- a rigid frame supporting each of said at least one lens;
- a substrate;
- a solar cell mounted to said substrate in the focal area of each of said at least one lens;
- and
- deflectable support means mounted to said substrate and connected to said frame, said support means being resilient and inherently biased such as to exert a force in opposition between the substrate and the frame to tend to move the frame and the lens away from the substrate to a deployed condition, and to be deflectable by a force exerted on said frame to overcome said bias and move said frame and said lens closer to said substrate in a stowed condition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.