Revolutionary technology of Concentrated solar panels

Posted by administrator in September 16th, 2008

Morgan Solar - a company which might have the key for the brigh future. For of us, small users of solar panels. They expecting to divide the costs of fabrication by 4 !!! That’s simply amazing. The magic is the Light-guide Solar Optic (LSO). It’s made of acrylic that concentrates sunlight 750 times and redirects it to a tiny multilayered cell on the edge of the plastic.

The image below is the Sun Simba HCPV panel. You can see the aluminium “H” included. This is the 1000+ suns concentration configuration with the broader triangle optic. You can also see the tiny cell receiver assembly inlcuding visible through the optic.

The optics direct light - and heat - to their sides instead of their bottoms, allowing heat to escape. This thermal-modeling image shows the concentrator’s expected performance on the hottest conditions on earth, in which the hottest part remains below boiling temperature.

The company has raised $1.5M and plans to raise an additional $10M to $12M to reach production. They expect to present the prototypes at the Earth Rangers Centre in Woodbridge

“Really in the end, this is our innovation: Using a few pounds of acrylic and aluminum and the slightest sliver of PV, we’re able to do what others are able to do with 200 pounds of aluminum.”

The key to being able to stagger two rows of optics, with gaps, is their thinness. The optics are only 5 millimeters thick and are separated by about 1 centimeter of space, so that the whole panel is just over 7 centimeters thick

Some of the advantages of this solar panel:

Low cost - We’ll definitely be able to sell our panels at a significantly lower cost than most other CPV systems on the market. Reasons:
- We use very few materials compared to other systems - less material equals lower weight and less cost.
- Our manufacturing processes are extremely simple and can be 100% automated.
Low profile - The LSO allows us to build a panel that is only 3cm (<1 inches) thick.
Low Wind Load - We have a simple innovation that allows for lower wind loading on the panel, even when in full wind facing position.
- Combined with the low weight and low profile of the system, this leads to additional savings in the tracker.
No Overheating - We don’t have any overheating issues, not that we’ve found ways to deal with overheating, our system doesn’t overheat.
No Thermal Expansion Problems - We don’t have any thermal expansion issues, our system expands evenly, with no thermal misalignments.
High Concentration - Our concentrator technology very easily scales up to 1400 suns concentration in the current implementation, and with modifications can achieve up to 5000 suns concentration (which we’re considering for solar chemistry and other super high temperature industrial applications).
High Efficiency - There is an absolute minimum of sun exposed surface that isn’t capturing light, and very few losses in the optics, so the system functions at near the theoretical limits of efficiency for CPV systems.
Unique - We don’t use lenses or reflectors - our system is unique so our advantages can’t easily be replicated in other systems.