3M Competes to Make Solar Thermal Cheaper With a Thin Film

April 20th, 2010 by Susan Kraemer

Now even 3M is getting into the solar biz. The huge Minnesota company is famous for the Post-It Note and other mainstays of Western civilization, but now their excellent materials scientists have been put to work creating a reflective foil that can be used to make the (already rather cheap) mirrors in solar thermal trough technology – even cheaper, through mass production.

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They are not the first midwestern US giant of industry to enter this field. Alcoa also has a way to make the mirrors in solar thermal trough technology cheaper, through the use of aluminum for the mirror.

3M’s solution is to make a sticky-backed polymer sheath that protects a micro-layer of highly reflective copper and silver. Their new film would reflect more light than traditional mirrors, increasing power output in a given area.

It could reduce the cost of a solar thermal plant “hundreds of millions of dollars”. Nevada Solar One was built recently and it cost $250 million – so a cost reduction of hundreds of millions sounds exciting! (A percentage of cost reduction might be more helpful). This stuff would cost about $20 a square yard.

3M technicians already have a great deal of experience in creating various types of solar reflective film for controlling heat and light on windows (both for buildings and for the auto industry), so this is a natural addition for the company.

As the new clean energy economy begins, we’ll see more of these sorts of unlikely entrants bringing their talents into the renewable energy business.

Image: 3M

Source: Technology Review

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Tags: 3m, cheaper solar, copper, polymer, silver, trough

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

Paul

Mylar films are used for this purpose in the DIY market.
http://www.selfsufficiently.com Alex

great! ..i found this, what do you say about this it? http://www.selfsufficiently.com/how-can-i-make-my-home-self-sufficient ?
http://solar.calfinder.com/blog Taylen

with the amazing and genius products they’ve pumped out over the years, it was only a matter of time! love to see what started as a mining and manufacturing company has gotten into the green energy race