TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

The photovoltaic cells are arranged in “light troughs” which are covered by lenses with extremely short focal length. As shown below these troughs are arranged on a platform mounted inside a circular ring floating on a thin layer of water of 8 inches. 

The platform follows the azimuthal movement of the sun by turning around its vertical axis. The troughs follow the sun’s elevation by tilting around their horizontal axes. Thus the lenses always point exactly at the sun. They concentrate the sun’s radiation onto energy converter-units. These lens-cell-modules form the active elements of the platform.

 

 Prototype in El Cajon

The sealed linear troughs float on said water layer. A thin film of hydrophobic liquid prevents evaporative losses of the water. Since the troughs float on water, they do not experience deformation or twist by lateral force and are always horizontally aligned. The lengths of the troughs, which can be attached to each other, adapts to the circular geometry of the platform.

The drawing shows that it is advantageous to arrange three 30kWp platforms into a triad, since such a triad will need only one sun tracker as well as one drive unit for the azimuthal movement of the sun and six drive units are required for the tilting of the troughs to follow the sun’s elevation. 30kWp-platforms were chosen because their radius equals the length of the combined troughs. In the center of the interstitial between the three platforms a pillar is positioned which forms part of a concrete base plate, which can be moved on a vinyl membrane separating the water from the soil. Three floating beams are mounted onto that pillar. Each of the beams carries an alignment bracket. One of these brackets comprises a gear-motor, which is controlled by the sun finder. The motor of the central drive unit, which rotates the three floating rings of the platforms, has a performance of only a few watts.

To produce Gigawatts of electricity, a large number of PYRON-SOLAR triads are placed close to each other in the shallow pond.  Each triad has its own tracking for azimuth and sun elevation, controlled by a sun -tracker.