Solarsphere – Hybrid PV/CSP Capturing 72% of the Sun`s Energy? - Solar Feeds
The fact that their “sphere” is made up cheap materials – half of it
comes from post-consumer recycled plastic – makes the new invention
cost-effective with traditional PV systems. And on top of this, it could
also capture the solar thermal energy that is generated within the
device.
The system consists of a reflector that is based on traditional
telescope designs. By using a parabolic dish reflecting sunlight onto a
smaller dish, energy concentrated in a single beam can be captured by a
triple junction PV chip.
“With that much concentration we can generate energy in two ways.
First, we produce electricity with 40 percent efficiency, as high as the
most efficient units commercially available today. But that’s just the
photovoltaics part. With a 1,000 times concentration there’s a lot of
heat generated. So we capture that thermal energy in a liquid.” Says the
founders Corbyn Jahn, COO, and Adam Burwell, CEO, both students of
Renewable Energy Engineering at Oregon Tech, in an interview with
GeekWire.
The team is currently early in the process of designing their system.
They are contemplating to run the hot liquid through a Rankine cycle or
Stirling engine in order to elimante the intermittence of standard
solar power. They are also open for capturing the heat energy in other
ways.
Jahn and Burwell are currently in the process of finding an investor
for seed capital and take their prototype to a pilot system.
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