Dishing Out Affordable Solar Power and Heat Likened to a 10 m tall sunflower, a new high concentration PV thermal system produces electricity, potable water, and heat for various uses as it magnifies radiation 2,000x times to achieve an 80% conversion efficiency. Each 40 sq m parabolic dish designed by Switzerland-based Airlight Energy features 36 metallized foil elliptic mirrors. These concentrate radiation onto microchannel liquid-cooled receivers equipped with triple-junction PV chips. Active liquid cooling technology developed by IBM for use in supercomputers keeps the chips at a safe operating temperature of 105° C (221° F). Phys.org reports that the 12 kW power/20 kW thermal system will be available for off-grid deployment in 2017.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 22:49:22 +0000
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