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MIT Making Super Efficient Origami Solar Panels
ByronScott writes "Could the next solar panels be in the shapes of origami cranes? They could be if MIT power engineering professor Jeffrey Grossman has his say. Standard flat solar panels are only optimized to capture sunlight at one point of the sun's trajectory — otherwise they need automated tracking systems to follow the sun. But Grossman found that folded solar cell systems could produce constant power throughout the day sans tracking and his new designs are up to two and a half times more efficient per comparative length and width than traditional flat arrays."
It's an interesting, nerdy endeavor, but less practical than automated tracking systems; the expensive part of solar is the panels themselves. From TFA: His new designs are up to two and a half times more efficient per comparative length and width than traditional flat arrays.
If solar cells were free, than this would indeed be more efficient, and if there's limited space thay MAY be more practical.
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So, we could use these folding panels to power computers folding@home, and the waste heat can warm our houses as a green solution to heating. Just be ready to spend more of that other green folding stuff ...
Great, this will work wonders for my zero-cost zero-thickness self-intersecting perfectly rigid solar panels. I just hope my spherical vacuum-chickens don't try to nest in it.
The Earth is already covered in efficient origami solar panels, its just that regular people call them plants.
But space is often limited, because we don't want to cover the landscape in solar panels. But we can put them in places that are already build-up.
And automated tracking systems need more maintenance then fixed systems, that is why roof top solar panels of various sorts don't tend to track. Better accept the lesser efficiency then risk having to have maintenance done on a roof that without solar panels can go for decades without maintenance.
I just found the shapes puzzling, got to wonder how the sunlight enters that first blue one with the spiral in it. It is an intresting idea, but I wonder if they are usable on a roof, some look like their would be really good at catching the wind (read blowing off).
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The linked page actually mentions that the guy who came up with these was inspired by the way trees grow.
Of course those also have automated tracking systems built in.
Folded Solar Cells
Capturing sunlight all day
It's been done before
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
So, I've come to the conclusion that anytime anyone claims to be working with "super-, ultra-, or mega-" efficient anything, the product never seems to make it to market. Can we start using some buzzwords that actually mean something, like maybe, "MIT works on practical, efficient solar cells." Or perhaps, "MIT works on deployable, efficient solar cells." Or maybe, "MIT works on manufacturable, efficient solar cells."
Then those announcements might mean something. Wait, you mean to tell me that the project likely isn't practical, deployable, or manufacturable? Oh, well.....
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but 10x harder to clean.
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A simple cylinder, replicated many many times, would be easier and more reliable to produce:
http://solyndra.com/
Sometimes I think guys from MIT have a degree in over-engineering :-)
To put a witty saying into 120 characters, jst rmv ll th vwls.
Solar cells that are right around the corner!
Didn't some 8-yr old kid at a science fair demonstrate cells that were 30% more efficient a few months back? And before that there was some researcher who figured out how to make 'em 30% cheaper, and another guy who figured out how to make 'em with paint.
All these stories (heck, if I had the free time, I'd find the Slashdot stories that point to these new miracle products) keep saying that "real soon now", we'll have paint-on, dirt cheap, 110% efficient solar panels that will make so much electrcity, you won't need a $3000 bloom-box to turn natural gas into electricity for pennies a day.
Why, electricity will be so cheap, we won't even have to meter it!
Sure, real soon now. And yet, every time I try and get a quote on mounting a few panels on my roof, the cost is $25,000 and it will take me 30 years to break-even on the electricty. Where's the efficient, cheap PRODUCT that will directly enable ME to put panels on my roof?
How many more YEARS do we have to wait? Or are all these researchers just making press releases and not actually making solar panels? And why aren't solar panels being made?
If all this tech si so f'ing great, you'd think some company, even a Chinese company, would be rushing to make them, even under patent license because they would corner the market if the panels were cheap and more efficient!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
There is a certain amount of sunlight incident on the earth surface, app. 1.2KW/m^2 times the cosine of the suns angle from the normal, on a perfectly clear day.
Just covering the earth surface with solar cells will catch all that power, minus a small amount of extra reflection at low angles.
There is no way to improve total power beyond that.
Only if solar panels are very expensive compared to their supporting structure does it pay to align them in a way that the Sunlight is hitting them normally (at an right angle).
There are three ways to optimize then:
a) fixing them in a position that faces the sun at an right angle during the time the sunlight is strongest, i.e. around noon. For that purpose, you can just mount them at an angle of app. 30 on a south-facing roof
b) actively tracking the sun
c) use mirrors to enlarge the effective respective cross-section of the panels
Before sensationally claiming a 140% improvement over existing configurations, you need state your design objectives. If it is active panel area, then origani-like mirrors may help - but TFA does not mention mirrors
If it is "comparative length and width" of the real estate used, as the article states, there is nothing to improve on flat panel.
I suspect this is just a bad writeup of a theoretical paper showing off some genetic design algorithms - don't hold your breath waiting for these concoctions to appear at your local Home Depot anytime soon!
He may be getting more light onto the array, but there is a huge problem with this. There is a relationship between voltage and current for cells that provides peak power (max efficiency) at a particular operating point. In other words, by changing the "load" on a cell you change its efficiency. A controller is usually used for a string of cells to keep them operating at peak efficiency. Since a string is normally connected in series, they all have to operate with the same current, and since the peak efficiency point depends on the amount of light hitting the cell you really want the whole chain to have the same amount of light hitting it - hence the entire string should be a PLANAR array. The problem with this origami stuff is that there are many many surfaces getting different amounts of light at all different angles. You'd almost need a controller per cell - not practical any time soon.
He may be gathering more sunlight, but I'd bet he can't actually design something like this that produces more real usable electric power.
If I get this article's point, the cost of the system's solar paneling would rise, since more area would be needed.
Now, the making of solar panels already use up more energy than they're able to produce in their lifetimes...
wny make the energy (& $) cost any greater.
Can the same effect be had, eg, from arranging mirrors to beam sunlight in from different angles, as the sun moves?
Mirrors are far cheaper to make (in energy & $'s)
...maybe I am just better at it....it's certainly not an enormous effort in terms of energy used or my time. I find it very cost effective, plus fun. It has actual value there as well to me. Especially splitting, quite relaxing in a physical fitness/exercise way, I actually look forward to it, same as some people look forward to a gaming session on the computer, or a round of golf.
And wood, being very renewable and sustainable, is rather a nice way to go. It also has a very good benefit as it insulates you from sudden market shocks. Example, I have personal friends who were using oil heat back during the opec embargoes. All of a sudden, with no notice, their heating bill was *larger* than their mortgage note. With wood, taken off your own site, this isn't a worry. You can be completely unemployed and still not worry about at least heat for you and your family. You don't need to have to come up with the scratch for a very important and expensive utility.
No one single source of energy can be all things to all people, but I certainly find wood heat to be at or near the top of the list as to being efficient in terms of my energy in to energy out, plus efficient in terms of cost. I have a 250 gallon propane tank, sitting full in the backyard, unused for the past three winters now. It is no longer my primary expensive fuel, it is my backup, only to be used in an emergency fuel. So ya, my time is as valuable to me as anyone else values their time, that's why I prefer to work directly for myself, and eliminate as much as that cash middleman as possible, Same way we grow the bulk of our food now, vegetables and meat. Cost effective, helps eliminate bills, helps insulate from market shocks, and I am not going to fire me or offshore me, etc for "enhanced shareholder value". I think of it as practical job insurance as well.