Researchers Claim New Solar Panel Can Collect 90% of Sunlight From Any Angle

[Brink]

Researchers Claim New Solar Panel Can Collect 90% of Sunlight From Any Angle​

Written by Andy Salisbury 11/05/08 at 04:20:08 PM


With some news straight out of the “didn’t we just hear about something like this?” file (we did), some groundbreaking research has revealed that a near perfect solar panel has been created.

Scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have allegedly found a process that allows them to trap nine out of ten photons that hit a solar panel, providing a 90 percent collection rate. A new anti-reflective coating for the panels provides grounds for creating solar panels that don’t have to change their angle in order to collect energy.

With current technology, the photon absorption rate stands at an already impressive 67.4 percent, with the variable of whether or not the sun is actually hitting the cells. But the new cells which according to Shawn-Yu Lin, the man responsible for the project, function like a “dense forest where sunlight is ‘captured’ between the trees.” This happens through a process that not only involves the new anti-reflective coating, but also the bending of the path of the sunlight to an angle that allows maximum capture of sunlight.

With all possible variables at their best, Lin claims that the cells can capture 96.21 percent of the photons that hit their surface.



Source: Researchers Claim New Solar Panel Can Collect 90% of Sunlight From Any Angle | Maximum PC

 

[Grazor]

Thats pretty cool, looks like they found an alternative to fossil fuels

 

[Brink]

Now they just need to mass produce them cheap enough for the average consumer to be able to afford them.

 

[NormCameron]

With all the advances in technology surely we must begin to make progree against greenhouse gases, unless we use the extra energy to increase consumerism!


"Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of. MIT engineers report a new approach to harnessing the sun's energy that could allow just that.
The work, to be reported in the July 11 issue of Science, involves the creation of a novel "solar concentrator." "Light is collected over a large area [like a window] and gathered, or concentrated, at the edges," explains Marc A. Baldo, leader of the work and the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering.
As a result, rather than covering a roof with expensive solar cells (the semiconductor devices that transform sunlight into electricity), the cells only need to be around the edges of a flat glass panel. In addition, the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell "by a factor of over 40," Baldo says.
Because the system is simple to manufacture, the team believes that it could be implemented within three years--even added onto existing solar-panel systems to increase their efficiency by 50 percent for minimal additional cost. That, in turn, would substantially reduce the cost of solar electricity. "


MIT opens new 'window' on solar energy - MIT News Office

And this guy has his own system :-

 

[garysgold]

Seems a lot of work is being done in this area. I saw a vid somewhere in which they where testing a collector for space orbit. They used Fresnel lenses to concentrate the light. Found this. Solar power satellite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gary

 

[Brink]

Hi Norm,

LOL, I guess he's self powering I suppose.

 

[Grazor]

Now they just need to mass produce them cheap enough for the average consumer to be able to afford them.

Ye give that 10 years

 

[Brink]

I hope they do it sooner.