On-sun optical characterization of a solar dish concentrator based on elliptical vacuum membrane facets

We report on the first on-sun experimental demonstration of a novel solar dish concept based on elliptical vacuum-membrane facets. Optical characterization is performed with a new absolute irradiance measurement system which mitigates many of the limitations of the existing methods. During the on sun-tests, a peak and average flux concentration ratio of 3140 and 897 suns on a 60 × 60 mm area were achieved, respectively, yielding a solar radiative power of 4.1 kW. These results serve as an experimental proof-of-concept of elliptical membrane facets, which have the potential to drastically reduce the manufacturing cost in comparison to current systems based on conventional silvered-glass mirror technology.