increase solor panel energy

Started by gameleaper, July 27, 2017, 11:45:42 AM

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gameleaper

we use wind turbines that turn to point into the wind, why don't we have big magnifying glasses the shine a concentrated sun beam at solar cells. the magnifier could point at the sun as it moves

trailrunner

Quote from: gameleaper on July 27, 2017, 11:45:42 AM
we use wind turbines that turn to point into the wind, why don't we have big magnifying glasses the shine a concentrated sun beam at solar cells. the magnifier could point at the sun as it moves

There was a system built that concentrated the sun onto a water tower to create steam.  I visited this system when I was in grad school in the 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Solar_Project


As far as your idea of concentrating the sun onto solar cells - that wouldn't improve anything.  Solar energy is limited by the energy per area of sunlight, and the conversion efficiency of the solar cell (which is not especially high).  To get enough power out, the solar panels cover a large area.  With your idea, you would need the lens to cover the same large area to collect the same amount of light.

I think there might be a lens or optical cavity on each cell to improve efficiency as the angle of the sun changes throughout the day, but that is not the concentrating lens you are talking about.  Moving the cell to keep it oriented towards the sun would also work.  This is what you were thinking about with the wind turbine, but for the turbine to stay aligned with the wind, it doesn't require any power or any complexity: just let it pivot naturally.  To do this for an array of solar cells, you'd have to introduce a moderately complex mechanical system.  Certainly not impossible, but solar cells already have a problem competing on cost, and you would take away the simplicity of solar cells, which is one of their primary advantages.

gameleaper

the sun is predictable & would not need to aimed just follow a set path, so a simple motor that takes some of the solor power to tick round would work.

I did not know solor panael had a limit, because they said on a blazing hot sunny day this year they generated more than they ever had on the news, so if we could do this everyday with a lenze.

You know your eggs, I'm just floating ideas