New, Cost Effective Solar Energy Devices from MIT
No more solar cells covering a roof, but around the edges of a flat glass panel, as shown in the artist’s representation by NSF.
MIT engineers say they’ve created a new approach to harnessing the sun’s energy that provide windows with a clear view and illuminate rooms at the same time without the need for tracking devices.
According to a news release from MIT , the solar concentrator collects light at the edges, and dye molecules coated on the glass absorb sunlight and re-emits it at different wavelengths. The light is trapped within the glass and transported to solar cells along the edge, creating electricity and allowing light into the room as well.
The mixture of dyes is applied to the surface of the glass and allows light to travel a much longer distance. Mapel said, that as a result, light transportation losses were significantly reduced, resulting in a “tenfold increase in the amount of power converted by the solar cells.”
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Marc A Baldo, leader of the work, is quoted as saying; “the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell by a factor of over 40″. The article went on to say that because of its simplicity and ease of manufacture, the system could be implemented within three years. It could even be added to existing solar-panel systems, increasing their efficiency by 50 percent for minimal additional cost.
Other researchers involved in the project are Michael Currie, Jon Mapel and Timothy Heidel, all students of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Shalom Goffri, a postdoctoral associate in MIT’s Research Labortary of Electronics.
The new technology will be developed and commercialized by a new company, Covalent Solar, formed by Mapel, Currie and Goffri.
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Leave it to MIT to come up with the good stuff! Go MIT!
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Wow, that’s really cool. Hopefully this will make solar panels much more practical.
Looks fantastic. Now all we need to do is wait 10 years to see if a product using this technology ever makes it to the residential market. There’s so much hype around new solar technologies that are just around the corner that will make solar electric systems even more cost effective, but oddly they rarely seem to come to market. Meanwhile the cost per watt of PV panels is pretty much the same as it’s been for the last 4 years.
The public would be better served by learning more about cheap solar technologies that are indeed available today and really reduce the amount of petroleum most households have to consume (for heating) - such as solar air heating and solar water heating systems. These are systems are about 1/4 to 1/3 the cost per unit of energy produced. They generally pay for themselves in 3-6 years and can be expected to last decades - that’s decades of free heating.
I wonder if this could be used with a clear coating over a vehicle’s body to turn the entire car into a collector, while still allowing it to be stylishly colored.
This is great, great news indeed! No time to loose. Let’s start a big project for this one!
Like Chris mentioned above, there are many other places where the same application can be used.
It will be interesting to see how they use the technology.
Another great academic exercise! As a race, we are well practiced in invention and scientific intent but how do we increase the rate at which these discoveries result in affect?
How would our world change if one percent of the invention was lost for an increase in one percent of our ability to implement and action the invention?
To add to what Sascha Deri said, MIT was behind the advancements using chlorophyl harvested from spinach to make better solar cells. What happened to that idea? I haven’t heard anything about it in years.
And yes, we would all be better served to incorporate passive solar into every new house and renovation project. Passive solar can be used for radiant floor heating, supplemental water heating, and in the sunnier parts of the west/midwest it’s even used for electricity production!
Sounds great. I will offer my home as a test subject for this MIT find.
Where do I get one? This is just what we all need. The warm summer sun, all season sun should be saved and used later. We wait all year to feel it’s warmth. This new system sounds like it would really work.