Reflection of sunlight by mirrors
Sunlight is composed of a direct component and a diffused one. A major portion of the energy of the sunlight lies in direct sunlight. Consequently, in the geographical locations with fewer sunny days, even if 50% of the days are sunny, it is reasonable to put the basis of the design of a solar collector for direct sunlight and eliminate the need for solar PV panels by replacing them with sun tracker light reflector mirrors. The output of a PV panel depends on the available solar energy flux, and if the panel temperature is controlled, by concentrating the sunlight even an order of magnitude increase in the generated power can be obtained. The effect of concentrated sunlight on the available energy and the output power generated from PV panels at constant temperature is shown here. The experiments were repeated two times and performed on a sunny day in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada on June 23, 2021. A number of 15 reflecting mirrors are used that concentrate and focus the sunlight on a small 2m tall tower, installed at a distance of 3 m from the mirrors.
concentrated sunlight and mirrors
As the number of sun tracker light reflector mirrors increases, the solar energy flux increases, too.