Low-Cost Materials for Heliostats

Four heliostat concepts with extensive use of timber, concrete, or polymers were developed. For cost comparison, a 2 m² benchmark heliostat was designed and built with only moderate or no use of these materials. The benchmark heliostat was found to be of lowest cost, also when compared with heliostat costs given in literature. The reasons for the astonishingly low cost are the small size and several other innovations in detail which are partly described.