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.
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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September 4th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Just another hype to get money.
All hat no cattle!
September 4th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Hi Ariel,
You say:
I’d like to remind you that the country you live in is one of those countries…
September 4th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
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September 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
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.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:45 am
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
September 5th, 2008 at 6:45 am
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…
September 5th, 2008 at 10:20 am
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
September 5th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
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.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Simple and Cheap? I like it! Simple and cheap is good.
Jiff
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
September 5th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Actually Brian light is a particle not a wave. See Feyman’s QED. He discusses it fully there.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Another solar breakthrough. Not shooting the messenger, but we’ve been hearing about cheaper and better solar for 10 years now. Where are the products!?
September 5th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
actually it is a particle that acts like a wave when in large numbers……self resonance orgnisation and coalescence of like particles
September 5th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Brian:
”
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?
”
You’ve got your quantums all tangled Brian. The photon’s state will resolve to one location when it is observed. How is it observed in this case? By striking the solar panel and knocking an electron loose.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
There’s a lot more detail on this in the Greentech Media article the company mentioned: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/out-of-africa-new-concentrating-solar-tech-inspired-by-congo-stint-1346.html.
Also, here’s the company blog: http://www.morgansolar.com/blog/2008/09/05/digg-main-page/
.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
“Actually Brian light is a particle not a wave. See Feyman’s QED. He discusses it fully there.”
Everything displays properties of both particles and waves. Light is a wave AND it is a particle (photon).
Brian, the famous double slit experiment was based on light (photons), not electrons. That being said, the double slit experiment was later done on electrons and they show wave properties as QM predicted.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
This seems to be easily solved problem no? To attract more sunlight to solar cell embed tiny blackhole in every solar cell, blackhole use massive gravity to attract everything, just make sure solar cell is in front of black hole so light hit solar cell first.
This breakthrough cause massive increase in light and power generation.
Feel free to use idea,no patent necessary for something so obvious.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:32 am
The famous double-slit experiement in quantum physics proves the electron behaves like a wave. This is not the same as to say that the electron is not a particle, as there are other experiments that demonstrate clear particulate behavior, as well. Wave-particle duality is an odd concept, but a core one in quantum physics (and wave-function collapse)…
The particle has the capacity, at once, to be in two places. That’s not quite the same thing as being in two places at once (as demonstrated by those collapsing wave-functions)…
Not sure if or how any of that would relate to solar energy capture…
September 6th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Well, it appears as though my question raises a lot of other questions, and I guess that’s when conversations get good.
Thanks for the article Ariel, I’ll read it as soon as I’m done posting.
Alex, excellent point. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed … hmm, and even if it were a wave it would not necessarily have more of a charge. It would have the same charge value in many places. The only benefit that could be realized is if it could be collected repeatedly.
Jim, I thought light was classified as both. I could be wrong though. Can you give me more info on where to look for the article you’re referencing?
Brian
September 8th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Brian,
Your idea of collecting the light repeatedly has some validation. Take a look at multi-junction photovoltaic cells. It works on the understanding of visible light being comprised of many colors i.e. many different energies. Different semiconductors have different energies they absorb, or “band gaps.” Light (or rather photons with different energies) passes through layers of these film cells and increases the efficiency of the overall cell. I suggest you look more into PV theory and see whats readily available. Good idea though.
Ariel,
You don’t mention anything about how hot the system could get. I would assume as with any other CPV system that this one would get fairly hot. And we all know that when solar cells get over heated, they lose efficiency. I’ve seen so many great concentrating systems; what I want now is a great cooling system for them.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
This is good. I think a lot of people are interested in renewable energy. My question is what needs to be done for these systems to be subsidized and installed everywhere? Who wants to step up and sponsor solar energy so everyone can be making their own emission free energy?
September 18th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Actually, there are no quantum particles.
Things are a lot easier when you stop trying to shoehorn the subatomic into preconceived categories. Thinking of electrons as little green billiard balls orbiting a lumpy red nucleus only leads to confusion.
Let the equations dictate what the theory describes. In the case of QFT, the equations describe a continuous field. Excitations of the field travel as waves. Energy transfer (ie interaction) is allowed only in discreet qunta.
The “particles” we’re used to only appear when boundary conditions are applied (such as the particle in a box) But the particle is just a fiction. What really exists is the field, and the energy.
The real quantum mystery is not how a “particle” can be in two places at once. A wave is not so localized. The mystery is how the energy gets “concentrated” again in an interaction. How are conservation laws “enforced”?
If you simply *must* think of quantum entities as real particles or waves, pretend they travel as waves and interact as particles.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
There a number of companies that have already commericialized the CPV technology and are selling and installing the systems today. The heat problem has already been solved. If you want to learn more, go to Emcore.com, unenergy.org, solfocus, isofoton, etc.. or just do a simple google search on CPV solar – Morgan’s technology is not unique or new, it is late. What is unfortunate is that our juvenile legislators are bickering at each other, trying to preserve big oil tax breaks, and letting solar and wind energy tax credits expire at the end of this year while hundreds of millions of investment and R&D dollars and thousands of jobs related to the solar energy sector are already moving offshore where the legislative and tax climate is much more favorable. Blog about that instead of companies that are a day late and a dollar short to the party. Keep in mind that previous wind energy tax credits have driven investments in the sector that have now dropped the cost per Kwh in half or better.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
[...] lower cost and higher efficiency of concentrated solar as the shortest route to the mass market. Morgan Solar of Toronto has developed a concentrated solar technology based on thin sheets of acrylic, and [...]