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April 28, 2006
New Method of Concentrating Sunlight Could Be Cheaper
A really interesting notion. Prism Solar Technologies has developed a solar cell using a hologram to concentrate solar energy on its units. This allows it to create solar panels with more power with less of the over price silicon. Also it looks pretty because you get the reflected color effect caused when you use a prism. That's always nice, here the picture of it.
The 85% reduction in silicon drops the price per watt of power from $4 to $1.50. The first generation of the cells are only going to get things down to $2.40, but they will be available by the end of the year according to the literature. That's a good improvement all things considered. It would be nice if this improvement was made to all solar panels made in the US immediately, but we know how those patents work. A tiny underfunded company will keep a strangle hold on technology that could help free up a massive amount of power for other purposes.
Read more over at Treehugger and Prism Solar Technology.
Posted by ManDrake at April 28, 2006 5:10 PM
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Comments
I wish these publications gave some numbers to work with and not just claims. How much power could be generated per square ft, yrd or m if these new cells were installed on a roof of a house, ware house or office building. Has this tech been marketed to major power companies like TVA or the states? Until tech is working in the field there remains too much opportunity for it to be bought out and suppressed.
http://www.tva.com/greenpowerswitch/
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36162/story.htm
Posted by: Royal at April 29, 2006 10:08 AM
That is one disadvantage to the bleed edge research projects is that they don't have numbers they are willing to publish because they don't have to ability to keep people from stealing their ideas. Also they like to be vague so they can get funding in hopes of doing things that are even more impressive.
Posted by: ManDrake at April 29, 2006 10:24 AM