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Wow...
Cool concept. Now we need to implant pizoelectric clear crystals and metal over the top of silicon solar cells in various thickness layers to trap the various magnetic spectra.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—A dramatic and surprising magnetic effect of light discovered by University of Michigan researchers could lead to solar power without traditional semiconductor-based solar cells.
The researchers found a way to make an “optical battery,” said Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics.http://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=8368Light has electric and magnetic components. Until now, scientists thought the effects of the magnetic field were so weak that they could be ignored. What Rand and his colleagues found is that at the right intensity, when light is traveling through a material that does not conduct electricity, the light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected. Under these cir stances, the magnetic effects develop strength equivalent to a strong electric effect.
“This could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation,” Rand said. “In solar cells, the light goes into a material, gets absorbed and creates heat. Here, we expect to have a very low heat load. Instead of the light being absorbed, energy is stored in the magnetic moment. Intense magnetization can be induced by intense light and then it is ultimately capable of providing a capacitive power source.”
What makes this possible is a previously undetected brand of “optical rectification,” says William Fisher, a doctoral student in applied physics. In traditional optical rectification, light’s electric field causes a charge separation, or a pulling apart of the positive and negative charges in a material. This sets up a voltage, similar to that in a battery. This electric effect had previously been detected only in crystalline materials that possessed a certain symmetry.
Wow...
Cool concept. Now we need to implant pizoelectric clear crystals and metal over the top of silicon solar cells in various thickness layers to trap the various magnetic spectra.
I read about this last week. It is EXTREMELY interesting.
More immediately, solar thermal news (US govt loans to 2 GERMAN companies)
The U.S. Department of Energy is offering $2.1 billion in conditional loan guarantees to support what will be the world's biggest solar power plant, the government's largest commitment to date to solar energy.
The aid will support construction of the first two units of Solar Trust of America's 1,000 megawatt solar thermal Blythe Solar Power Project, the DOE said yesterday. Solar Trust of America is a joint venture between German companies Solar Millennium and Ferrostaal.
"For the first time in mankind's history, a solar power facility will be built at a scale and output capacity equal to the very largest coal-fired and nuclear power plants operating in the world today," Solar Trust of America Chief Executive Uwe Schmidt said on a conference call with reporters.
solar troughs
The first two units of the project near Blythe, Calif., will be capable of producing 484 MW of electricity using solar thermal trough technology. The project will create over 1,000 construction jobs and 80 operations jobs and will avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those generated by about 123,000 vehicles
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20...=2547-1_3-0-20
what about that artificial leaf?
It all has to be looked at. Probably a mix of solar technologies will make it, unless one's superiority overwhelms all others.
Trough tech has the advantage of being scalable, as does PV, solar concentrating arrays have the major advantage of storing excess and generating power at night.
Hard to say which will win out. I would think different ones would have different applications, depending on local requirements/situations.
Quite high.......and figures since it's an effect which occurs on a very small scale.The light must be shone through a material that does not conduct electricity, such as glass. And it must be focused to an intensity of 10 million watts per square centimeter. Sunlight isn’t this intense on its own, but new materials are being sought that would work at lower intensities, Fisher said.
For comparison, if you focus a 100mW laser to a 1mm spot, it gives you about 12.4 W/cm^2. A magnifying glass can give you around 1000 W/cm^2
I'm interested in the proposed material solutions. Should be really interesting going forward.
I think the theoretical physics that it overturns is more interesting than the idea of its applications. Always fun to learn something new.
Damn, I missed that 10 million watt figure. That's ridiculous. I don't think any glass we have ever made is transparent enough to withstand that. Am I right or wrong?
Here's that article mentioned:
Optically-induced charge separation and terahertz emission in unbiased dielectrics
Looks like there are several problems applying this to solar. They used a 1 kw laser focused to 50 microns for an efficiency of 0.114%. Up to 30% is optimum in theory for a laser and a fiber optic core of 50 microns. I doubt solar can cost effectively be concentrated tight enough. They even talk of using sapphire fibers.
Last edited by Wild Cobra; 04-20-2011 at 12:35 PM.
Solar upstart BrightSource Energy files to go public
BrightSource Energy plans to raise $250 million from the stock market to build a pipeline of utility-scale solar power projects.
The Oakland, Calif.-based company on Friday filed its S-1 do ent with the SEC, laying out its business model and the risks of building large-scale energy projects in desert areas. BrightSource Energy is one of the few green-tech companies started last decade to seek to go public, which will be a test for investors' interest in its solar thermal technology.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20...#ixzz1KY23Ls3n
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