Abstract

The new high radiative flux solar furnace is being developed in Mexico at the Centro de Investigación en Energía of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. The alignment of the facets of the concentrator is a key procedure to obtain the required energy distribution in the focal zone and to keep the global standard deviation of the optical errors low. We present a novel method for optical alignment of the facets; this alignment procedure requires a simple optical system, allows rapid alignment and guarantees the required accuracy. Preliminary results obtained with this procedure are discussed, which show that the facets alignment satisfactorily meets specifications.