A review of nonimaging solar concentrators for stationary and passive tracking applications

The solar energy research community has realized the redundancy of image-forming while collecting/concentrating solar energy with the discovery of the nonimaging type radiation collection mechanism in 1965. Since then, various nonimaging concentration mechanisms have proven their superior collection efficiency over their imaging counter-parts. The feasibility of using nonimaging concentrators successfully for stationary applications has rekindled interest in them. The economic benefits are appealing owing to the elimination of tracking costs (installation, operation & maintenance and auxiliary energy). This paper is an exhaustive review of the available nonimaging concentrating mechanisms with stationary applications in mind. This paper also explores the idea of coupling nonimaging concentrators with passive solar tracking mechanism.