Abstract
Physicists at the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute have designed and successfully tested a new high-efficiency solar energy collector. The device, based on non-imaging optics, is intended as a power source of broadband solar radiation. It's possible that the collector will provide enough power to drive certain types of lasers that have not been widely used but that have broad scientific and technical appeal. In the process of developing the new collector, physics professor Roland Winston and predoctoral student Philip Gleckman also happened to triple the highest previous concentration of solar energy. The Winston collector produces a broadband energy beam 60,000 times more intense than the normal solar energy incident on the Earth's surface. The theoretical limit for the collector has been calculated at 102,000 times the normal intensity. Both values are considerably higher than the 46,000 multiple that was considered the thermodynamic limit for this system. Exceeding the apparent thermodyn...
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