New Concentrated Solar Tech: Simple, Cheap and Efficient
Morgan Solar, a Toronto-based company launched last summer, believes it has the answer to creating simple and cheap solar concentrators.
While other companies are working to make solar cheaper by using mirrors or lenses to magnify sunlight that is directed into solar cells, Morgan Solar takes a different approach. Their system uses a thin sheet of acrylic to concentrate sunlight 750 times. The sunlight is directed to a tiny cell on the edge of the plastic, greatly reducing the amount of material needed.
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Though Morgan Solar has competitors in the concentrated solar field, the company claims that their design is more efficient and less likely to break than other systems. And since their product requires so few materials—just aluminum, acrylic, and PV—it will be four times cheaper than other concentrated solar technologies.
Of course, Morgan Solar’s design is sure to draw comparisons to MIT’s announcement in July of a new technology that uses organic dyes to concentrate solar. But Morgan Solar claims that their optics are even more efficient.
We’ll find out whether the companies impressive claims are true in short order— a 1 meter by 1 meter prototype panel is currently being installed at the Earth Rangers Center in Toronto. The panel will begin producing electricity at the end of the month.
If Morgan Solar’s panels work as planned, concentrated solar may become a viable technology for countries that can’t afford the expensive systems available today.
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Just another hype to get money.
All hat no cattle!
Hi Ariel,
You say:
I’d like to remind you that the country you live in is one of those countries…
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Matt - good point. What I was trying to get at is that Morgan Solar could make concentrated solar accessible to countries that have issues getting basic electricity.
Ariel,
I may be going out on a limb here, but bear with me.
With regard to concentrated solar, I think that it’s the way to go, but I question how we’re going about it. And here’s why.
The famous double-slit experiement in quantum physics proves the electron is not a particle, but a wave, that only collapes into being a single definable entity when an observer is present (collapse of the wave function). Until then, it literally has the capacity to be in two places at once (actually several thousand places).
Do you know of anyone who is studying this outrageously weird characteristic of particles to concentrate or bolster the yeild of the energy solar panels can capture? Theoretically at least, it is possible.
Quantum physics is a very weird place, I know, but I’m quite sure of the underlying facts for my question.
Brian
New Concentrated Solar Tech: Simple, Cheap and Efficient | nerdd.net…
\r\nMorgan Solar, a Toronto-based company launched last summer, believes it has the answer to creati…
Brian - Excellent question. As far as I know, there aren’t any solar manufacturers currently working on quantum tech (though NREL is), but LiveScience has a very interesting piece about future possibilities: http://www.livescience.com/environment/080730-pf-quantum-enviro.html
The laws of thermodynamics would dictate that exploiting any properties regarding quantum mechanics would not in fact yield “more” energy just because of a particle being in more than one location at a given time. If this was the case then we would be made to believe energy is constantly being destroyed, which is territory I wouldn’t want to touch with a 10 foot pole.
Simple and Cheap? I like it! Simple and cheap is good.
Jiff
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
Actually Brian light is a particle not a wave. See Feyman’s QED. He discusses it fully there.