RPI and 96.2% efficiency
Moe
Solar Expert Posts: 60 ✭✭
Anyone here know anything about this?
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4A26XF20081103
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4A26XF20081103
Comments
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Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
i've heard this before, but i don't fully believe it.
"It captures more colors of solar spectrum and it captures light from all angles."
i think they may make improvements to these areas, but a bold statement like capturing light from all angles is pure bull and impossible. -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
And the "Laser Sulfur" treatment is supposed to get up to 90%. But they actually haven't made any yet...Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister , -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
From the article, if I understand it correctly, the coatings will only increase light collection by 30% from off-angle sun (reducing the need for a tracker)...
So, a 12% efficient panel will become a 16% efficient panel... Not bad--if the costs are low--but not a 96% efficient conversion by any means.
-BillNear San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
Article says:
"If you look at a solar panel, it looks a bit bluish," Lin said. That is "telling you not all of the blue color is being absorbed. It should look totally dark."
So I covered my PV with black electrical tape and it didn't help at ALL !!
boB -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
Sulfur Silicon solar cells - called Black Silicon, has been lasered in a sulfur rich gas, gets transmogrified to structural shape that is very efficient at harvesting solar energy, across much of the light & IR bands. 80% conversion ??
Laboratory use only - not life or field tested yet.
articles here:
http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/research/detailspage.php?rowid=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_silicon
http://tinyurl.com/4w3pbqPowerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister , -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
I don't think they're claiming 96% efficiency. What they are saying is the cells will absorb 96% of the sunlight hitting them (vs. ~67% for current cells). There's still the normal conversion of turning the absorbed sunlight into electricity. -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
I believe that this blog has to do with this new solar skin cream...
http://energy-for-future.blogspot.com/
So, where can I get some to try ??
Also, just found one of RPI's sites about this:
http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2507
boB -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
My Good Grief Bob! I had a look at that first link you provided and what a pile of horse fertilizer resides there
One guy built his own PV panel and still using the same KWH he always did, is now saving $180 per month on his electricity bill! And it says he lives near me! HAHAHA Problem is, some poor guy trying desperately to make ends meet, will get suckered into this crap and the end result will be word of mouth about how bad solar is. -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
Thank you all for your explanations. A 40% improvement in output at a 90º sun angle, as well as reduced loss at angles away from that, would be a very large improvement in the state of technology. -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
Hello Moe,
The coating will reduce the amount of energy that would be lost due to reflection (typically a few percent but increases as the incident angle increases). The antireflection coating still doesn't solve the problem of reduced intercepted power at large incident angles. The power intercepted by a collector is proportional to the cosine of the incident angle. For example, at a zero degree incident angle 100% of the power is available minus a small amount of reflected light. At a 60 degree angle, only 50% of the beam power is available minus perhaps 10% due to reflection.
The net result is that a tracking system would still be needed to collect the maximum amount of light throughout the day.
Regards,
Jeff Fedison -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
Also, the abstract from the article is available here:
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-33-21-2527 -
Re: RPI and 96.2% efficiency
Thanks for the good info, Jeff!
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