ADAPTIVE FULL-SPECTRUM SOLOR ENERGY SYSTEMS

This RD&D project is a three year team effort to develop a hybrid solar lighting (HSL) system that transports solar light from a paraboloidal dish concentrator to a luminaire via a large core polymer fiber optic. The luminaire can be a device to distribute sunlight into a space for the production of algae or it can be a device that is a combination of solar lighting and electric lighting. A benchmark prototype system has been developed to evaluate the HSL system. Sunlight is collected using a one-meter paraboloidal concentrator dish with two-axis tracking. A secondary mirror consisting of eight planar-segmented mirrors directs the visible part of the spectrum to eight fibers (receiver) and subsequently to eight luminaires. This results in about 8,200 lumens incident at each fiber tip. Each fiber can illuminate about 16.7 m{sup 2} (180 ft{sup 2}) of office space. The IR spectrum is directed to a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) array to produce electricity. During this reporting period, the project team made advancements in the design of the second generation (Alpha) system. For the Alpha system, the eight individual 12 mm fibers have been replaced with a centralized bundle of 3 mm fibers. The TRNSYS Full-Spectrum Solar Energy System model has been updated and new components have been added. The TPV array and nonimaging device have been tested and progress has been made in the fiber transmission models. A test plan was developed for both the high-lumen tests and the study to determine the non-energy benefits of daylighting. The photobioreactor team also made major advancements in the testing of model scale and bench top lab-scale systems.