GreenSun Develops Colorful Solar Panels that don’t need Direct Sunlight
Solar power comes in many forms, from rigid to thin film. The panels are shiny, gleaming and ready to harness the power of the sun.
They’re also usually silver. Yet they also come in colors, not just for looks, but for efficiency.
A Jerusalem company called GreenSun has developed bright-colored panels. Officials say the hues capture different parts of sun’s spectrum, and don’t need direct sunlight to work, according to National Geographic News.
The colored collectors are still in development, but the company says its panels will cost less than a buck per watt to manufacture, compared to more than $4 a watt for conventional solar.
The technology is based on concentrating visible and ultraviolet light without concentrating heat, which reduces the performance of conventional cells. GreenSun also says its panels only require 20 percent silicon, with a conversion rate of up to 20 percent, or up to twice as much as commercial panels now on the market.
The secret is the edges, The Economist explains.
“Traditional solar cells are made of thin sheets of the element covered by glass plates. In GreenSun’s cells, though, only the outer edges of the glass plates are covered by silicon, in the form of thin strips. The trick is to get the light falling on the glass to diffuse sideways to the edges, so that the silicon can turn it into electricity.”
GreenSun does this this by coating the glass “with a combination of dyes and sprinkling it with nanoparticles of a metal whose nature they are not yet willing to disclose,” according to the report.
If this works, it could brighten up the solar market in more ways than one.
(Image Credit: GreenSun Energy)
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September 18th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Cool to see this happening, as I’m a big fan of solar energy.
September 18th, 2009 at 9:47 am
That is very neat – You could make a stained glass window that not only looks cool, it also provides energy.
September 18th, 2009 at 9:57 am
This is old news… see Technology Review article from last July. Get up to speed Jeff.
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/21066/page1/
September 18th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Well chrisp68 maybe this “old news” needs to be told again, perhaps it needs more exposure as good ideas often do, the image appears to be new and not the same one from the old site you linked to.
I am ALL for this! I love solar energy ideas!
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 am
Chrisp68, pay more attention: although they appear similar, the two technologies are different!
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
A lot of ideas of solar energy. I think in short we will generate a big part of world energy by solar transformers. Very good.
September 28th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Since when do solar panels need direct sunlight? Solar thermal power plants do but photovoltaic systems don’t. On the other hand, solar thermal energy can be stored and released say at night while this is a problem for photovoltaics.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Great post, we did something like this just a bit ago and it really is getting exciting thinking about the solar tech they are finding!