magnified glass...

There is a guy online on utube that shows if he take the glare assoicated with a fresnell lens...(not the hot part) and puts it on his solar panel the voltage increases about 8%.....is any type of magnified glass used in the professional panel industry??

does this concept hold water in adapting to your panels?? thanks

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: magnified glass...

    There is at least one vendor that may be selling arrays that use plastic lenses on the front of silicon solar sells... You can see them in this thread.

    Yes, it can be done--the silicon typically would need some sort of cooling and the lenses would probably require some sort of tracker (depending on lens/cell design/layout).

    'Bout all I know of regarding commercial products. Others may have more information.

    -Bill

    PS: If I recall correctly, normally magnify about 10x the solar radiation and get probably about 5x the power output (I would expect increased current from increased solar radiation, and probably reduced Vmp because of increased cell temperature--unless there is some sort of heat sink/active cooling involved.

    Most fail because of solar cell overheating.

    -BB
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset