According to the proposed invention, this technical result is achieved so that many-facet concentrator of a solar setup for exposure of objects, placed in a target plane, to the action of solar radiation containing a supporting frame and facets differing by that the facets of the concentrator are chosen with spherical focusing reflective surfaces of equal focal lengths and with selective coatings reflecting a desired spectral fraction of solar radiation, and are arranged on the supporting frame symmetrically with respect to the common axis of the concentrator, their optical axes being directed to the single point on the optical axis of the concentrator located before the nominal focus point of the concentrator and determining the position of arranging the target plane.

A lens or mirror is employed to concentrate sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell. The cell employs a broad conductor around the periphery of its active surface, and narrow higher resistance conductor strips over the inner part of the surface. The cell and mirror are sized, positioned and shaped such that the image of the sun on the cell's surface is non-uniform, with a proportionately higher concentration of light falling near the periphery of the cell adjacent the peripheral conductors. Thus, the generated current is greater at the periphery, so that less energy is lost due to series resistance of the surface conductors, for more efficiency compared to a uniformly illuminated cell. The non-uniformity can conveniently be obtained by utilizing the natural spherical aberrations of a simple spherical mirror or lens. Also the cell can be positioned relatively close to the mirror outside the focal plane, so that the illuminated area on the cell is larger than the focused image of the sun in the focal plane. Thus, for given diameters of cell and mirror, the arrangement is more compact, and much less sensitive to inaccuracies in mirror curvature.

A sunbeam concentrating and collecting apparatus comprising a lens system for concentrating sunbeams and a light conductor cable. In order to obtain the most effective concentrating of the sunbeams, a beam-receiving end face of the light conductor cable must be precisely registered with the focus of the lens system. For this purpose, a cable holding means for holding the beam-receiving end face is constructed so as to be able to move and adjust in three directions perpendicular to one another at one point close to the focus of the lens system, by means of a position adjusting means. A light shielding plate is provided on the cable holding means.

A multi-position focusing apparatus having a plurality of pads mounted about a centerline receiving ray reflecting members or energy emitting devices thereon, whereby the pads are focused along the centerline on a desired point in space to concentrate all of the energy on the selected point and when once focused, upon operating the apparatus at substantially all positions of the pads, the focal point of the pads will lie in a common point along the centerline.

A mount for continuously orienting a collector dish relative to the sun in a system adapted to perform both diurnal and seasonal solar tracking. The mount is characterized by a rigid, angulated axle having a linear midportion supporting a collector dish, and oppositely extended end portions normally related to the midportion of the axle and received in spaced journals. The longitudinal axis of symmetry for said midportion of the axle is coincident with a seasonal axis while the axes of the journals are coincident with a diurnal axis paralleling the earth's polar axis. Drive means are provided for periodically displacing the axle about the diurnal axis at a substantially constant rate, while other drive means are provided for periodically indexing the dish through 1.degree. about the seasonal axis, once during each of the earth's successive rotations about its polar axis, whereby the position of the dish relative to the axle is varied for accommodating seasonal tracking as changes in the angle of inclination of the polar axis occurs.