Nonimaging achromatic shaped Fresnel lenses for ultrahigh solar concentration

The maximum concentration ratio achievable with a solar concentrator made of a single refractive primary optics is much more limited by the chromatic aberration than by any other aberration. Therefore achromatic doublets made with poly(methyl methacrylate) and polycarbonate are of great interest to enhance the concentration ratio and to achieve a spectrally uniform flux on the receiver. In this Letter, shaped achromatic Fresnel lenses are investigated. One lossless design is of high interest since it provides spectrally and spatially uniform flux without being affected by soiling problems. With this design an optical concentration ratio of about 8500x can be achieved. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America