New type of extremely powerful solar cell
- Thread starter RudeCurve
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Well, for the time being it'll just supplement current power production, easing the stress on the grid and allowing other plants to power down during sunny days.
Just another solar concentrator isn't it? Look near the start of the video and they talk about the "1,000 suns" thing and they later talk about large parabolic dishes so you're not going to have anything 1 square foot in size providing much power, that's for sure. Nothing was said about the efficiency of the solar cell itself either so I expect it was just a standard (and expensive) multijunction silicon photovoltaic cell. The current efficiency record for solar cell is a little over 40% conversion rate for these devices, by the way.
Lots and lots (and lots!) of companies are working on these Concentrating PV systems and many seem to be on the brink of bringing products to market.
Here's some information about one company which has been announcing stuff recently (which sounds quite an elegant system if it works as advertised) and here's another.
I agree that all this research into solar power is a very good idea and, hopefully, some of these designs will come into play soon. (Here's another handy run-down of some other developments for those who are interested).
As others have mentioned though, what is required is a good and efficient system for energy storage. This is a tricky problem to solve and one of the reasons why so much research on Hydrogen storage is being made, most of it fruitless unfortunately.
Lots and lots (and lots!) of companies are working on these Concentrating PV systems and many seem to be on the brink of bringing products to market.
Here's some information about one company which has been announcing stuff recently (which sounds quite an elegant system if it works as advertised) and here's another.
I agree that all this research into solar power is a very good idea and, hopefully, some of these designs will come into play soon. (Here's another handy run-down of some other developments for those who are interested).
As others have mentioned though, what is required is a good and efficient system for energy storage. This is a tricky problem to solve and one of the reasons why so much research on Hydrogen storage is being made, most of it fruitless unfortunately.
They're not only concentrating the sun's energy, they have a solar cell that is extremely powerful per unit of area that can harness the concentrated beam. I don't think a standard solar cell can do this but I could be wrong. Also they already have an order to build the world's largest solar power plant in the Mojave desert in CA. If you could do this with any off-the-shelf solar cell using mirrors it would've been done a long time ago.
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Concentrating PV is nothing new but plenty of research is being carried out into better ways of doing it. As I understand things, a lot of the problem with CPV is that of heat from the concentrated light damaging the small area of solar cell it impacts so it may just be that they have developed a cell which can deal with the heat better or a better cooling system. The Sunrgi link I included in my previous post (the 2nd one) claims this is what they do i.e. their "Proprietary heat removal system" means they can increase the number of suns hitting the solar cell and therefore the amount of energy generated.
The problem with the video as posted is that it was just a typical fluff news report which goes into scant detail and doesn't really tell us anything at all!
As so many companies are now working on CPV systems, we'll obviously see their take-up increasing and hopeully the most elegant design will be the most successful.
One of the main alternative approaches for solar power is thin-film systems from companies such as NanoSolar - their panels don't rely on concentrated light and aren't nearly as efficient (efficiency somewhere in the teens) but they are much cheaper to produce and don't rely on tracking technology.
Certainly an interesting field of developments but, as I live in the UK where it seems to be cloudy 90% of the time, I don't know why I've bothered to read up on it at all.
The problem with the video as posted is that it was just a typical fluff news report which goes into scant detail and doesn't really tell us anything at all!
As so many companies are now working on CPV systems, we'll obviously see their take-up increasing and hopeully the most elegant design will be the most successful.
One of the main alternative approaches for solar power is thin-film systems from companies such as NanoSolar - their panels don't rely on concentrated light and aren't nearly as efficient (efficiency somewhere in the teens) but they are much cheaper to produce and don't rely on tracking technology.
Certainly an interesting field of developments but, as I live in the UK where it seems to be cloudy 90% of the time, I don't know why I've bothered to read up on it at all.
Mintmaster
Veteran
Mariner is right. There's nothing new here.
If you're interested in home units without huge arrays or dishes for concentration, check out SunRGI. (EDIT: I see Mariner already linked to it.) Concentrating the sun still takes a lot of materials, though -- far more than even nuclear. That's the problem with solar right now, and then for really large deployment (i.e. replacing coal) you have storage to worry about.
My confidence in solar was restored, however, with advances in thin-film tech (CIGS). That finally brings material cost into the realm of practicality.
If you're interested in home units without huge arrays or dishes for concentration, check out SunRGI. (EDIT: I see Mariner already linked to it.) Concentrating the sun still takes a lot of materials, though -- far more than even nuclear. That's the problem with solar right now, and then for really large deployment (i.e. replacing coal) you have storage to worry about.
My confidence in solar was restored, however, with advances in thin-film tech (CIGS). That finally brings material cost into the realm of practicality.
Thin film needs something to put it on. That is where the cost will come from. BOS will cost a lot even if the thin film was free.
Well, perhaps the benefit of the approach of focusing the sunlight onto a smaller area is that if the reflector is much, much cheaper than the solar panel, then it's an overall cost savings from using panels.
Whats up with those guys that claim they can use a printer and print out solar cells ?
I would think something like that printed onto shingles for houses could work very well. Here in jersey during the summer you can power all those air conditioners and in the winter when they make less power (or are covered in snow making none) they can be used to light up a few engery efficent light bulbs taking any strain away from the power plants. In the winter we don't use as much power here.
I def like the distribuited solar plant ideas better than huge solar farms though. If i could shingle my house with solar panels for 2k or 3k more than it would currently cost to single my house but the solar cells would last 15+ years and lower my electrical bills i'd go for that and i'm sure many people would also .
I would think something like that printed onto shingles for houses could work very well. Here in jersey during the summer you can power all those air conditioners and in the winter when they make less power (or are covered in snow making none) they can be used to light up a few engery efficent light bulbs taking any strain away from the power plants. In the winter we don't use as much power here.
I def like the distribuited solar plant ideas better than huge solar farms though. If i could shingle my house with solar panels for 2k or 3k more than it would currently cost to single my house but the solar cells would last 15+ years and lower my electrical bills i'd go for that and i'm sure many people would also .
Unfortunately, I don't think the large solar concentrators used in conjunction with these solar cells would do much for the car's aerodynamics!
But that's not what happens is it? Current wind and solar generation is more or less greenwashing of natural gas.
And how much land are you willing to flood, anyway?
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You're not displacing coal and nuclear; they can't respond that quickly(smaller coal or nuclear plants could load-follow, but that's not the kind of plants that have been built).
You're displacing a bit of hydropower and a bit of natural gas(and you have to pay them for that privilege; why would they decide to forgo profits?) all the while becomming more dependent on natural gas being there in the future.
I don't see why anyone would want to use expensive, giant two-axis tracking concentrating solar collectors and then go and spoil everything with a solar cell.
The only reason one would build such a system in the first place is to collect heat and store it in molten salt; thus defeating large slew-rates from the occasional cloud, sand storm or whatever. With a PV-cell you get the worst of both worlds; you get an expensive, high maintenance machine and intermittency.
The only reason one would build such a system in the first place is to collect heat and store it in molten salt; thus defeating large slew-rates from the occasional cloud, sand storm or whatever. With a PV-cell you get the worst of both worlds; you get an expensive, high maintenance machine and intermittency.
Unfortunately, I don't think the large solar concentrators used in conjunction with these solar cells would do much for the car's aerodynamics!
I meant some kind of smaller solar cell with high power in general, not specifically this thingy.
