The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 30, 2014
Filed:
Aug. 22, 2011
Philipp H. Schmaelzle, Los Altos, CA (US);
Patrick Y. Maeda, Mountain View, CA (US);
Patrick C. Cheung, Castro Valley, CA (US);
Philipp H. Schmaelzle, Los Altos, CA (US);
Patrick Y. Maeda, Mountain View, CA (US);
Patrick C. Cheung, Castro Valley, CA (US);
Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A low profile heliostat with elongated louvered mirror segments is provided. Its envelope of revolution has the shape of a flat disc to enable heliostat fields with very high ground coverage ratio. The heliostat's disc-shaped footprint rotates around a substantially vertical axis (akin to a carousel). The short dimension of the mirror segments is drastically shorter than the disc's diameter. Embodiments are described in which the motion relies on two concentric rings, which are individually rotated around a vertical axis. The lower ring acts as a platform providing mainly azimuth tracking, carrying the upper ring. The differential rotation between the upper ring and the lower ring is translated into a rotation of the mirror segments around a second, perpendicular, axis and used for elevation tracking. Disc-shaped heliostat with D-shaped cut-offs are described, to facilitate the required maintenance access even in highly dense heliostat fields.