Design and comparative analysis of hybrid heliostat-parabolic system

Solar energy is an abundant and renewable resource on Earth, but its potential is significantly enhanced when harnessed in space. Space-based solar energy systems present a compelling alternative to terrestrial solar power by capturing sunlight beyond Earth's atmosphere, where it is more intense and uninterrupted. In recent years, solar-powered lasers have shown a tremendous evolution in providing additional value for solar energy utilization. The solar-powered lasers are used to transform broadband solar radiation directly into a collimated, coherent, and monochromatic laser beam. However, the power density of radiations received from the sun is inadequate for irradiating the active medium of lasers. Hence, the concentrating optics is essential to enhance the power density of natural sunlight. In this study, an optical design of hybrid heliostat-parabolic mirror is presented as the primary concentrator of solar-powered lasers to enhance the concentration at the focal spot. The present study also considers different shapes (circular, rectangular) of mirrors in the rectangular packing arrangement and compares the achieved power. The simulation results evaluated that concentrated power from the circular-shaped mirror array (4 × 5) is 767.07W, and from the rectangular-shaped mirror array (4 × 4) is 942.73W. The rectangular mirrors attain a fill factor of 99.32%, significantly higher than the 77.89% fill factor of circular mirrors. This improvement is primarily due to a substantial reduction in the void area, decreasing from 22.10% for circular mirrors to only 0.67% for rectangular mirrors.