Hyperlight Energy, a developer of Hylux, a concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, has signed an exclusive license agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for its patented receiver design technology. The design improves the performance of linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) receivers used in Hyperlight’s CSP platform.
The improved performance facilitated by NREL’s receiver design, combined with Hyperlight’s low-cost reflector system, will increase the value of the Hylux platform for customers. Hyperlight is prioritizing rapid optimization and deployment of this technology at a time when companies and industries are pushing through the world’s toughest decarbonization challenges.
“We’ve worked in partnership with NREL on our in-house developed world-beating low-cost reflector system for close to a decade,” says John King, CEO and co-founder of Hyperlight Energy. “We’re thrilled to now be executing on our plan to add best-in-class performance to our offering by integrating their proprietary receiver design methodology into Hylux.”
Traditional CSP projects require large amounts and expensive steel for construction, which can pose scalability problems. Hyperlight uses domestically sourced, recyclable plastic to make Hylux. Hylux can be mounted on-site and can be adapted to a variety of industrial settings. The end result is a platform which uses mirrors to capture and reflect the sun’s heat, generating steam to efficiently power industrial processes, manufacturing, oil extraction and more.
“The new technology from NREL offers a breakthrough in design methodology that optimizes optical capture, with no additional cost for the hardware,” states Guangdong Zhu, inventor and senior engineer at NREL. “Up until now, the receiver design process started with an equation followed by a ‘guess-and-check’ approach through optical modeling of multiple iterations of the curve. Optical modeling is the best method to get the optimal design. You end up with the same material and production cost, but with a boost in performance for free.”