Adaptive Material Could Halve Solar Panel Costs

Adaptive Material Could Halve Solar Panel Costs
Aug-01-14
A new material able to adapt to the heat of concentrated sunlight could help to cut the cost of solar panels in half.

While focusing sunlight allows for the production of smaller and cheaper solar cells, the actual focusing requires lenses or mirrors and an array of expensive equipment. The new light concentrator, from Glint Photonics, helps alleviate this cost by combining a system of thin, inexpensive sunlight-concentrating lenses with a specialized sheet of glass able to concentrate the focused light up to 500 times more.

The glass features an adaptive material that will heat up and turn non-reflective in the spot where the light hits it, allowing the light to enter the glass sheet. The light is then trapped within the glass, where it bounces around until it reaches the small solar cell mounted on the thin edge of the glass. As the sun moves across the sky, the material will adapt and only allow the light to enter where the beam of light hits it, which alleviates the need to keep the device aimed directly at the sun.

More Info about this Invention:

[TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM]
[GLINTPHOTONICS.COM]
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