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| Solar Energy Enters A New Age |
| Friday, July 11, 2008 at 23:28 by Peter Smith |
Researchers in the US have made a major breakthrough in the use of solar energy to generate power for everyday use. They have created a new dye that they are able to coat onto glass which will then increase the amount of power generated by tenfold. The announcement comes at a time when the oil price is moving higher and holding the worldwide economy to ransom.
The major benefit of the new process over everyday solar panels is that fact that the dye coating when applied to glass affectively separates and ‘traps' the light within the glass panel. As the light bounces around the panel, it is picked up by photovoltaic cells around the frame which convert the light to useable power.
The solar panels in place at the moment are very different in that they need to follow the sun and are angled so that everything reflects into the solar concentrator in the centre of the panel. The concentrator heats up very quickly, reducing both efficiency and the requiring a cool down period when no energy is produced. The new dye coating based system is much more efficient, cost affective and could easily be applied to windows in buildings creating masses of power without changing the look of the building. |
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