There has been a lot of research into making solar panels more efficient in collecting the sun’s energy. A team of engineers at the University of Arizona, led by Roger Angel, who is an internationally celebrated US researcher in the field of solar energy and optics, have undertaken the development of a solar energy module with the aim to make solar energy as affordable as a $1/watt installed.
The energy telescope system of solar energy generation concentrates the solar light by optical funnels, resulting in 1200 times geometric concentration before it hits photovoltaic cells located just behind the funnels. These funnels are sized so that all the cells receive the same power and thus generate the same electrical current. The whole system is unique in a number of ways. It uses no water, has a low environmental impact and produces a high volume of electricity in terms of land acreage used for equipment. The modular, sun-tracking systems are large, lightweight open structures, requiring on-site assembly. The jobs created to build, deploy and maintain them remain local.
Instead of using expensive PV cells, the solar telescope uses commercially available triple-junction solar cells, which have three junctions that each capture energy from different wavelengths of light. These solar cells have more than double the conversion efficiency of conventional (single-junction) cells.
Eight dish reflectors and their associated optics and photovoltaics as well as cooling and tracking components are all integrated into a space frame structure. It was constructed in the lightest possible way using lightweight high strength low alloy steel in a mechanically efficient framework.
Angel said:
Our goal is to have the first complete 20 kW energy telescope installed and operating by the end of the year.
Image Credit: Rehnu
Via: Cleantechnica
