PONTOON SOLAR COLLECTION SYSTEM REDUCES COST OF CONCENTRATED SOLAR ELECTRICITY GENERATION

摘要

HelioTrax has designed a pontoon solar collector that utilizes multiple innovations to deliver a cost-effective method of generating electricity directly from concentrated sunlight. This paper describes the innovations of the pontoon solar collector and how they work together to reduce the cost of concentrating solar electricity. The pontoon solar collector has several major advantages over conventional fixed panel and solar concentrating systems. The production cost per watt is predicted to be approximately half that of conventional solar energy systems. Additionally, the system is able to harvest four times more energy than traditional tracking systems for a given site space. Higher-efficiency cells and the shadow-tolerant Fresnel lenses contribute to a more efficient utilization of land area. Up to 75% of a site space is to be covered with active collection area versus a maximum of 25% site space utilization for conventional pole-mounted solar tracking systems.