fire starter?

mmag
mmag Solar Expert Posts: 57 ✭✭✭✭
in Solar Skeptics, Hype, & Scams Corner #1
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/giant-glass-orb-could-replace-solar-panel-135221605.html
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  • jaggedben
    jaggedben Solar Expert Posts: 230 ✭✭
    #2
    Re: fire starter?

    "At the same time, the Rawlemon product is arguably much more aesthetically pleasing than the gray, oblong panels currently in use. "

    And arguably it isn't. I suspect most suburban homeowners would rather have black panels mounted flush to their shingle roofs, looking like a very large inconspicuous skylight, rather than have a giant orb that the neighbor kids will constantly make fun of.

    CPV companies are tanking anyway. Not proving to have a cost benefit over PV. Concentrating the sun just means you need a different kind of PV cell. You are not gathering any more sun.

    Now if he wants to try using this to provide industrial process heat, he may be onto something.
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: fire starter?

    "Fire Starter" could well be a good description for this proposed product. If as promoted, the actual PV size could be reduced to just 1% of that required for traditional PV, while still produce the same power, than that now tiny PV cell would be getting blasted with the equivalent of 100 suns. Heat caused voltage drop aside, I expect the efficiency of this amazing device would very quickly be greatly reduced as the magical sphere fills with smoke from the superheated poor little PV.
    But still, all this could easily be offset by the fabulous price. For instance, a one metre diameter orb which would, at least for a very short time, produce 180 watts, would only cost roughly $6,000.00, assuming no cost overruns, which would work out to roughly $33.00 per watt. This would indeed be a terrific value, especially seeing that even today as standard PV prices continue to fall, our presently available PV panels can sometimes be had for prices not far from 33 CENTS per watt.
    Oh, and did I mention that one metre glass orb is expected to weigh in at roughly One Thousand and Forty pounds, not counting the necessary mechanism to hold it in place? (And yes, since I'm from Canada, it's metre, not meter. We have to be different you know.)
    Now to replace my present 1900 watts of PV, I'd only need eleven of these gorgeous orbs on my roof, at a cost not including mounting brackets, the crane and workmen to do the installation, of roughly $66,000.00, and don't forget the taxes! Sounds like a steal to me. And speaking of steal, that would be one worry to mark off my list as it would take a 1/2 ton truck 11 trips to transport the stolen objects of desire off the property, and considering today's price of fuel - - - .
    OK, with all that now out of the way, it's time to get on with reinforcing the roof. Lets see, a quick mental (mental in more ways than one) calculation gives me a load of 6 tons. That's about as much as the load of the average snowstorm in the Great White North, so to be safe, the roof will have to stay in position loaded to at least 12 tons without doing the death squat. So lets see - - - where did I leave my calculator - - - -
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