| abstract |
The invention is an improved solar collector comprising a fiber optical solar receiver which passively concentrates incident solar energy for delivery as an intensified flux to an absorptive target. In one embodiment of the invention, the present solar collector comprises a boule of fibers shaped into an arcuate collecting surface at one end, the fibers tapering to a flat output plane at the opposing end of the boule. Solar radiation entering the collector at the collecting surface is concentrated within the tapered portion of the boule and delivered as an intensified flux to an absorptive target disposed in operative relation to the output plane, the absorptive target being either a cookpot, a thermal storage mass, or the hot junction of a thermoelectric generator. |