By Michael Graham Richard
23 April 2013(TreeHugger) – Concentrating the sun's ray onto solar photovoltaic (PV) modules requires walking the fine line between optimizing power output and not literally melting your very expensive super-high-efficiency solar cells. A team led by IBM Research seems to have found a way to push back the line. They have created a High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system that is capable of concentrating the power of 2,000 suns onto hundreds of triple junction photovoltaic chips measuring a single square centimeter each (they even claim to be able to keep temperatures safe up to 5,000x). The trick is that each solar PV cell is cooled using technology developed for supercomputers; microchannels only a few tens of micrometers in width pipe liquid coolant in and extract heat "10 times more effective than with passive air cooling."
The beauty is that this heat is not just thrown away. This system gets useful work out of it. So while the PV modules are 30%+ efficient at converting the sun's light into electricity, another 50% of the sun's energy is captured as heat and can then be used to do things like thermal water desalination and adsorption cooling. This means that the system is capable of converting around 80% of the collected solar energy into useable energy (though the electricity is of course more useful than the thermal energy). [more]
Thursday, May 2, 2013
IBM solar collector combines solar PV with solar thermal to reach 80% conversion efficiency, magnifies sun by 2,000x, costs 3x less than similar systems
Friday, July 23, 2010
Will ‘solar trees’ sprout in parking lots?
By MATTHEW L. WALD
July 14, 2010, 7:27 amPart of the fine print in solar power systems is that whatever wattage number is quoted, it is usually “peak watts,’’ or the amount of electricity that the panel would deliver when the sun is directly overhead. For the rest of the daylight hours, the output is lower; a graph showing minute-by-minute production resembles a sharp mountain peak.
One way to do better is to mount the panel on a metal backbone and let it tilt over the course of the day, keeping itself pointed towards the sun from sunrise to sunset. This is called a single-axis tracker. Better yet is a two-axis tracker, which also adjusts the angle to compensate for how high the sun is in the sky. Then the graph showing output would resemble a plateau. But all of this adds cost.
Envision Solar, a San Diego company, has found a niche in the solar world by building shaded parking areas with solar panels fixed to the roofs. The panels do not track the sun, but they are angled to take advantage of it: they are usually tilted to the south.
But parking lot designers seldom take solar orientation into account when painting the stripes for the parking spaces; the company has sometimes had to realign the parking stalls so that the roofs will have good solar orientation, with the rows of cars running east-west. In the ideal configuration, said Robert Noble, an architect who founded the firm and is its chief executive, the sun rises in the windshield and sets in the back window, or vice versa.
Now Envision is trying out another idea. On Wednesday, it will announce that with financing from the state of Pennsylvania, it is trying out a “solar tree” mounted on a gimbal, a mechanical device with rings mounted on axes at right angles to each other. …
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Researchers make breakthrough in transparent spray-on solar
New Energy Technologies–who introduced us to harvesting energy from roadways–has developed transparent solar cells which can be sprayed onto any glass surface.
How? They successfully removed all metals from the solar cell. A huge challenge as the metal component in the cells act as a negative ‘polar contact.’ And they replaced those metals with an eco-friendly compound: one you can see through! …
Researchers Make Breakthrough in Transparent Spray-On Solar
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Solar cells made through oil-and-water 'self-assembly'
By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC NewsResearchers have demonstrated a simple, cheap way to create self-assembling electronic devices using a property crucial to salad dressings.
It uses the fact that oil- and water-based liquids do not mix, forming devices from components that align along the boundary between the two.
The idea joins a raft of approaches toward self-assembly, but lends itself particularly well to small components.
The work is reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Crucially, it could allow the large-scale assembly of high-quality electronic components on materials of just about any type, in contrast to "inkjet printed" electronics or some previous self-assembly techniques. …
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
A once-dark Polaroid factory goes green
By Chris Arnold
Many old factories around the country now sit dark and empty. But at a once-defunct Polaroid film factory in New Bedford, Mass., the lights are on again and a new industry is rising up inside the ruins of an old one.
The company Konarka makes solar panels, but not the kind most people have seen. These are thin, lightweight, flexible plastic sheets, and that enables them to be used in all sorts of new ways.
"We make what's called plastic solar cells; we call it 'power plastic,' " says Rick Hess, Konarka's chief executive officer.
One type of the power plastic is transparent, so it can be built into windows to let homes or office buildings generate their own solar power. The material can also be sewn onto a bag or briefcase — even something that small will generate electricity. …
A Once-Dark Polaroid Factory Goes Green
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Hybrid solar panels combine photovoltaics with thermoelectricity
By Larry Greenemeier
Tar and shingles are hardly environmentally friendly materials, so the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hopes to soon help homeowners and businesses replace the roofs over their heads with something greener. To that end, the DOE awarded Weidlinger Associates , a New York City-based structural engineering firm, a $150,000 grant earlier this month (matched by a 10-percent commitment from the state) to develop durable hybrid solar roofing panels with integrated photovoltaic cells and thermoelectric materials that harvest the sun's energy to produce both electricity and hot water for buildings. …
Hybrid Solar Panels Combine Photovoltaics with Thermoelectricity
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
75 Chipotle restaurants get solar panels - chain becomes largest solar power producer in industry
Here's one more reason to feel good about heading out to Chipotle for a burrito: The Denver-based Mexican restaurant chain has just announced that is making a big solar power push, partnering with Standard Renewable Energy to install solar panels at approximately 75 of its restaurants over the next year.
Installation of the solar panels is currently underway in Denver, Colorado and Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas. All together, Chipotle says the solar power initiative is expected to avoid some 20,500 tons of CO2 emissions annually -- and that when completed Chipotle can boast being the largest direct producer of solar power in the restaurant industry. …
75 Chipotle Restaurants Get Solar Panels - Chain Becomes Largest Solar Power Producer in Industry
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Patent for a concentration solar power module that integrates into façades and roofs
UdL has obtained the Spanish patent for the creation of a concentration solar power system, and has already started the proceedings for obtaining an international patent. This system produces heat, cold and electricity and can be architecturally integrated into the buildings where it is installed.
A concentration solar power module that produces heat, cold and electricity and that can be integrated to façades or building roofs constitutes the new patent obtained by UdL. This system has been developed by Daniel Chemisana, member of the research group in Agrometeorology and Energy for Environment, leaded by UdL lecturers Manel Ibáñez and Joan Ignasi Rosell.
This thermal-photovoltaic modular system has a solar concentration of 10 suns, that is, it only needs a tenth part of a standard system’s active surface to produce the same energy, be it electricity, heat, or both simultaneously. Besides the reduction in the surface of used solar cells and the cost reduction this implies, this new technology can generate cold by connecting a heat pump to the system.
Rosell highlighted the architectural integration that these modules will allow either in roofs or in façades, which will reduce their visual impact. They can be directly installed in roofs, on the closure of concrete or brick blocks, forming a curtain wall in the façades or as a part of the railings in terraces, "as if they were a building’s second skin". They can also be used in residential buildings, companies or farms. …
Patent for a concentration solar power module that integrates into façades and roofs
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Flexible, transparent solar cells for windows
Solar company Konarka has developed a transparent solar cell that it hopes will be built onto electricity-generating windows.
A transparent solar cell Konarka hopes will be fitted into power-generating windows. Under its Arch Active Solar Glass development, the company has built prototypes of windows with the solar cells between two panes of glass. The photovoltaic cells can be tinted different colors. …
http://picocool.com/eco/building-on-flexible-solar-cells--/
It’s a solar panel, it’s weather protection … it’s Flexa
The Italian firm Enerqos, a photovoltaic (PV) system and solar power plant construction company has teamed with ESP, a specialist in the design of metallic structures for solar installations, to launch Flexa Solar Parking, an innovative, multifunctional solar canopy.
The canopy combines a solar-energy producing array with simple weather protection for parked cars. Enerqos and ESP are showing the product at this week’s SolarExpo 2009 in Verona, Italy.
Flexa Solar Parking can be adapted to any car park design — linear, vertical, angled, etc. — whilst optimising the available surface space for solar power generation. It can even be used for greenhouses, or to protect against hail storms. …
Thursday, May 7, 2009
First platinum LEED-Certified, 100% solar powered, affordable housing in San Diego
Image via: Wakeland Housing & Development Corporation
Los Vecinos, the first LEED-Certified Platinum, 100% solar-powered affordable housing in San Diego, offer 42-units of state of the art in green housing. The $17.6 million USD project opened its doors today to visitors to welcome the new neighbors, who are already living in the building, to the neighborhood.
The complex is located in the Chula Vista section of San Diego, and provides 3 floors of 1, 2 and 3-bedroom housing units. The complex also has a 1,500 square foot recreation center complete with fitness equipment, and space for classes offered such as finance, computer literacy and how to "go green." Eligible residents make between $16,600 and $58,800 USD per year (60% or less of the area's median income). The solar array covering the entire roof was installed by First Solar Inc and is a 93 kW system. Each apartment gets a certain number of solar panels hard-wired directly so it and gets whatever credit the system produces; the bigger the apartment, the more panels. …
Los Vecinos: First Platinum LEED-Certified, 100% Solar Powered, Affordable Housing in San Diego
Thursday, March 26, 2009
DOE loan recipient to make solar power as cheap as coal in 2-3 years
Solyndra, the first recipient of a loan from the Department of Energy, told us that it thinks it will produce solar panels at a price that's competitive with standard sources of energy in the next 2-3 years.
"We see a clear path," says Kelly Truman, the VP of marketing, sales and business development, "and in 2-3 years we'll hit grid parity."
We spoke with Truman yesterday who said the $535 million loan from the DOE will finance 73% of a new factory, though he declined to say how the company would pay for the remainder of the project. The current factory is going to be able to produce 110 MW of solar panels, with each panel able to produce 200W of energy each. The next factory will be able to produce 550MW of solar panels annually. That's enough energy to power almost 200,000 homes. Solyndra hopes to have the new factory shipping panels by 2011. …
Solyndra To Make Solar Power As Cheap As Coal In 2-3 years
Monday, March 23, 2009
First Energy Department loan guarantee goes to … a solar manufacturer
From Climate Progress:
The Department of Energy announced on Friday that the first energy loan guarantee authorized by the 2005 (!) Energy Policy Act went to a plant that manufactures solar panels:
First Energy Department loan guarantee goes to … a solar manufacturer
Monday, March 16, 2009
Photovoltaics market hit 5.95 gigawatts in 2008
Global photovoltaic installations reached a total capacity of 5.95 gigawatts in 2008, according to a new report from the California-based energy consultancy Solarbuzz.
That marked an increase of 110 percent over the previous year, the report states.
Europe accounted for most of the world’s photovoltaic market — 82 percent — with Spain’s rapid growth rate of 285 percent pushing previous leader Germany into second place, Solarbuzz says. The US took the third-place spot in photovoltaic installations last year, followed by Korea, Italy and Japan. …
Photovoltaics market hit 5.95 gigawatts in ‘08
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Europe's energy needs could be met by the Sahara
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent in Copenhagen
Europe's entire energy needs could be supplied by covering an area of the Sahara with solar panels a climate change conference has been told.
By harnessing the power of the sun in an area around the size of Ireland, Europe could easily meet its 2020 target of getting at least 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources.
"It could supply Europe all the energy it needs," Dr Anthony Patt, of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, in Austria, told scientists at a climate change conference in Copenhagen.
"The sun is very strong there and it's very reliable."
Dr Patt told the conference that calculations show a £50 billion investment by governments over the next ten years would be enough to make Saharan thermal solar power an attractive and viable prospect for private investors.
The technology, which involves turning water to steam by focusing the sun's rays with mirrors, is also becoming cheaper and compares favourably with other forms of solar power, he said.
The cost of moving electricity long distances has come down by around three-quarters, he added.
He said only a fraction of the Sahara, probably the size of a small country, needed to be covered to extract enough energy to supply the whole of Europe.
The sun in the Sahara is twice as strong as it is in Spain and is a constant resource, rarely being blocked by clouds even in the winter. ...
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Cost Of Installed Solar Photovoltaic Systems Drops Significantly Over The Last Decade
Researchers report that records from a decade's worth of solar power installations indicate that overall costs have declined significantly because of decreases in associated expenses such as labor and overhead -- most likely because of federal, state, and local support for solar photovoltaic systems.
Cost Of Installed Solar Photovoltaic Systems Drops Significantly Over The Last Decade
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Artificial trees could function as solar-wind harvester
SolarBotanic is a company which researches and specializes in an emerging tech dubbed biomimicry -- which seeks to mimic nature, and use nature-inspired methods to solve human problems. SolarBotanic is focusing on energy production, and, to that end, they've developed what they call Energy Harvesting Trees. The trees aren't "real," (they're just modeled on real ones); these are composed of Nanoleafs, which use nanotechnology designed to capture the "sun's energy in photovoltaic and thermovoltaic cells, then convert the radiation into electricity." They also have stems and twigs which house nano-piezovoltaic material which act as generators producing electricity from movement or kinetic energy caused by wind or rain. The company has several patents on the technology already, and are currently seeking partners for funding and development. We don't really have any details about what these fake trees look like -- but Thom Yorke's probably going to write a song about them.
Continue reading Artificial trees could function as solar-wind harvester
‘Revolutionary’ solar tech ready for prime time
International Automated Systems Inc. (IAS) says it will be providing Renewable Energy Development Corporation (REDCO) with its cutting-edge solar panels and new bladeless turbine for utility-scale solar projects.
A third-party analysis for REDCO found that IAS’s technology is not only commercially viable for such projects, but could outperform more conventional solar energy systems.
IAS said the analysis demonstrated that its technology has a higher overall annual efficiency — nearly 24 percent — than either photovoltaic or traditional concentrated solar power systems. In fact, it said its solar thermal power plant “needs to convert only 5 percent of the gross annual solar energy hitting its panels to electricity in order to compete with the lowest priced solar technology available today.”
“After careful analysis of their technology and of the independent reviews conducted verifying their projections, I believe that the IAS technology is unique, revolutionary and ready for commercial application,” said Ryan Davies, president and CEO of REDCO. “I believe that the IAS turbine combined with their solar panels and heat exchanger will produce reliable solar energy at a fraction of the cost of traditional solar.”
California’s PG&E announces 500 MW solar initiative
California utility PG&E has been a reluctant investor in renewable energy — until now. The utility announced yesterday a five-year plan to produce 500 MW of solar energy from a collection of midsize projects located in Northern and Central California. That’s enough power for 150,000 homes and 1.3 percent of PG&E’s electrical demands.. The solar panels will be mounted on rooftops and utility poles.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Samsung’s Blue Earth solar phone is ultra-green
I have a few friends (who shall remain nameless) who are often unreachable because they don't charge their phones when they should. These same friends should look into the new Samsung Blue Earth, which is to be unveiled in a couple days at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The phone is green, despite its blue color, and it's not just the integrated solar panels that make it so. The Blue Earth is made of recycled plastic, features a pedometer, and even software that reaffirms just how much you're helping the planet by using it. If Al Gore had one of these mobile devices in hand, it would likely explode.
Besides being handy and eco-friendly, the phone appears to be gorgeous. The solar panels reside on the back, and the front is a full touch screen. Despite the new technologies, it should fit nicely in your pocket. We should know more about pricing and availability next week.
Another group that might find this phone attractive would be those crazy outdoorsy types: campers, hunters, fish enthusiasts, and other sportsmen could extend their trips into the wilderness while remaining in contact with the outside world in case of emergencies. We'd like to see other phones with practical solar panels just for this.
Samsung's Blue Earth solar phone is ultra-green - CNET News
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