Low-Cost Solar Electric Power (PDF)

demonstration of the first solar-cooled house at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. In 1974, O'Neill joined a small firm in Dallas, Texas, where he developed the first commercially available Fresnel lens solar concentrator system. In 1975, O'Neill invented a performance-optimized Fresnel lens solar concentrator and licensed the patent to a large Dallas firm, E-Systems. While at E-Systems, O'Neill proposed and won a number of significant contracts from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support the development and demonstration of photovoltaic concentrator systems based on his optimized lens. These systems proved to be the highest performing PV systems of all types demonstrated by the DOE around the country. In 1983, O'Neill and some colleagues purchased the solar division from E-Systems and established the new company, ENTECH Inc. ENTECH became a leader in the field of photovoltaic concentrators, winning significant contracts from DOE, DOD, Sandia National Labs, National Renewable Energy Lab, and multiple utility firms. In 1986, O'Neill proposed a space photovoltaic concentrator system to NASA, and began a long relationship that culminated in a number of successful space flights, including the award-winning SCARLET (solar concentrator array using refractive linear element technology) array on Deep Space 1. That 1998-2001 mission used the SCARLET array to power ion thrusters to visit an asteroid and a comet. NASA and DOD funded many follow-on programs to improve the Fresnel lens photovoltaic concentrator systems. After ENTECH was acquired in 2008, O'Neill remained with the acquiring firm until 2011, when he formed Mark O'Neill, LLC (www.markoneill.com), which has continued performing contracts for NASA and aerospace firms related to space photovoltaic arrays, and research in other areas including ultra-bright traffic stripes and daylighting.



O'Neill received his B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Notre Dame in 1968, and has done graduate studies in mechanical engineering at other schools. O'Neill holds 23 U.S. patents on solar concentrators, prismatic cell covers,, daylighting, and retroreflective traffic stripes. He has authored over 200 publications, including chapters on photovoltaic concentrators in two books, Solar Cells and their Applications (1995 Wiley) and Photovoltaics for Space: Key Issues, Missions and Alternative Technologies (2022 Elsevier). O'Neill has won a number of awards, including a NASA TGIR (turning goals into reality) award in 2001, a NASA Exceptional Space Act Cash Award (2012), and an R&D 100 Award in 2012. O'Neill has collaborated with Dr. Lew Fraas since 1989 on programs using Fraas's photovoltaic cells under O'Neill's Fresnel lenses.