Patent ID: 8592672

Claim:
A foldable solar energy collector comprising: a base having a telescopic shaft being elevatable; a panel body having: a bottom board having: a perimeter; a center hole centrally formed through the bottom board; and multiple elongated channels radially formed through the bottom board and extending to the perimeter of the bottom board; multiple side panels pivotally mounted around the perimeter of the bottom board, each side panel mounted between adjacent two of the elongated channels; multiple foldable panels each having two edges, wherein one edge of each foldable panel is pivotally mounted on one edge of one of the side panels, and the other edge of the foldable panel is aligned with a direction of one of the elongated channels and pivotally mounted on one edge of adjacent one of the foldable panels; and multiple guide rods, wherein each guide rod is pivotally mounted between adjacent two of the foldable panels, and one end of the guide rod is pivotally mounted on the bottom board and located within one of the elongated channels so that the telescopic shaft penetrates through the center hole of the bottom board; a link assembly having: multiple link sets, each link set corresponding to one of the elongated channels of the bottom board and having: an inside link having one end pivotally mounted around the telescopic shaft; and an outside link pivotally mounted on the inside link and having a pivoting portion, wherein the pivoting portion has: a first end being adjacent to a corresponding inside link and pivotally connected to the end of a corresponding guide rod pivotally mounted on the bottom board; a second end being farthest away from the corresponding inside link; and a third end located between the first end and the second end; and a coupling block pivotally connected to the second end of a corresponding outside link and slidably mounted around a corresponding guide rod; wherein each of the side panels and the foldable panels is configured to transform solar energy to generate electricity when sun is incident on the same side of the solar collector as the inside links.