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Fresnel Lens solar concentrators

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  • 09-04-2009 4:41pm
    #1
    Oldtree
    Registered Users Posts: 8,104 ✭✭✭


    I saw a very interesting programme on Discovery the other week about these lenses. They improved the sunlight reaching a photovoltaic panel by a factor of 8. This caused a heat problem which they solved. The lenses appear to be a mass of tiny prisims in plastic. I can find out very little about them other than their inventor Mark O'Neill works here at Entec Solar:

    http://www.entechsolar.com/press-releases-details.php?id=126

    Are they costly to manufacture? Are they widely available?
    Could they be put over a vacuum tube solar collector to improve performance during the winter here in Ireland or would it get too hot for the tubes?

    It would be fantastic if it was so simple but somehow I doubt it. Does anyone have any knowledge about this type of lens?


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    #2
    Cheeble
    Closed Accounts Posts: 224 ✭✭Cheeble


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens

    They're very cheap to manufacture.

    Cheeble-eers


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    #3
    probe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,055 ✭✭✭probe


    Cheeble wrote: »
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens

    They're very cheap to manufacture.

    And a lot healthier one suspects! Some office and other buildings in Ireland use tinted glass which limits the light spectrum entering the building. While this type of architecture might be OK in Texas, where people get overdosed with sunlight, it is unhealthy in Northern Europe where exposure to sunshine is limited - nowhere more so than IRL.

    The brain requires full spectrum light entering the eye to function normally - it helps process vitamins and other substances from food required by the brain for peoples' mental function to work optimally. People who work in offices with heavily tinted glass (or who are dependent on artificial limited spectrum light from fluorescent or CFL lamps for example) are not as productive as they might be with full spectrum, preferably natural light.

    One seldom comes across buildings with heavily tinted glass in Northern Europe - aside from Ireland and GB, where design standards are generally appalling and not focused on health or sustainability. Make the building look cosmetically sexy to get a sucker to sign a 25 year lease..... without any consideration for the victims who will have to work in same.... seems to be the primary driver.

    While one doesn't wish to induce additional financial misery on the insurance industry or the architectural profession, it would be good for mankind, health and business productivity if there were one or two legal decisions in the courts against the people responsible for sick buildings to make all parties involved more health conscious and green when designing commercial buildings.


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