Solar heat for materials processing: building a 1 kW demonstration prototype

This presentation describes and discusses the various parts and components of a prototype that can handle 1 kW of solar power, in view of using the concentrated solar radiation and the solar-generated heat, for the processing of materials (i.e. solid substances). It is an advanced optical system - that collects, concentrates, controls and directs the solar radiation to the site of solar power utilization - to efficiently apply the output solar beam to the specific target. The principle of “double paraboloid reflection” recently proposed in our recent publications is used for the first time in this prototype. The motivation for the construction of the prototype is the validation of the work of Takashi Nakamura et al. presented at SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications events and proceedings in 2009 and 2011, in which silica optical fibers were used for passing high-flux solar energy.