New Solar Balloon Creates 400 Times More Energy Than The Average Solar Cell
There are many new forms of alternative energy but maybe none as interesting as the Cool Earth Solar “Balloon.” The concept behind this design is that they create an “inflatable plastic thin-film balloon (solar concentrator) that, upon inflation, focuses sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell held at its focal point.
The design produces 400 times the electricity that a solar cell would create without the company’s concentrator.” Cool Earth has already began construction on a power plant in Livermore, CA that will utilize this new technology. The plant is modest in size, creating only 1.4 Megawatts but if this plant works as well as they expect it to, they plan on launching a full sized plant next summer. One great thing about this device is that it’s made up of a very common and cheap material. “Plastic thin film is abundant and cheap,” said Cool Earth Solar CEO Rob Lamkin. “It only costs two dollars for the plastic material necessary for our solar concentrator.”
It’s ideas like this that I think will stick. It’s cost efficient. It’s made of an easy to find material and it’s an environmentally sound concept.
Do you think this sounds like a good way to harness solar energy?
To read more environment-related news, please visit the Causecast Environment Page.
Photo: cleantechnica
- Posted by CauseNews
- |
- 10.06.08
Related causes: Environment
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If the bubble was clear (or perhaps half-silvered like one-way mirrors) and filled with water, surely total internal reflection would trap the light inside anyway and make it omnidirectional? Filling it with water would lower the temperature of the solar cell and make it more entertaining when they degrade and burst! I wonder if Peltier Effect devices could turn the heat to electricity... Probably needs lots more research and investment like solar cells do. If I was going to invest in a whole power station of these, I'd be concerned about bored people with guns using the array as a big bubble-wrap tension reliever!
das5002 commented that it is only a short sighted idea as plastic is made from oil. Oil itself is not a problem - it's the burning of it which poisons the atmosphere. The other problem is that many companies just burn off the coarse natural gas which comes up when oil is withdrawn, rather than using that as well (some companies do). I don't know much but I know that gas can be used to make plastic also. There would be some pollution from escaping gas and also the impurities which are removed to make the plastic (but these can probably be put into a condition and stored safely). But the point is that the usage of oil would be phenomenally much less for plastic for solar cells than to burn to produce electricity and car fuel for the world.
@archolman:
We do not have to worry about losing oil as a resource since when we stop using it for fuel we will have so much more for plastic. There is also plenty of organic material to make plastic.
@pkassebaum:
Not being able to track the sun might not be much of a problem when the lens is spherical. I'd wager the extra light available at high altitude would out weigh the loss due to incidence angle.
it probably isn't designed to float in the air. there would be no way for it to track the sun. unless it is pointed directly at the sun, it won't work. therefore it is probably meant to be mounted to a stable frame on the ground much like a radio telescope or satellite dish.
plus - isn't it a giggle to think about hundreds of Congratulations Graduate and It's A Girl! balloons bobbing up and down over the Industria Parks of America. Oops, i might have inadvertently created a nightmare scenario of future advertisnig..aaagh
No doubt about it, solar power is abundant. Projections have been made that if an area about a hundred miles square in the Mojave desert wer devoted to a solar concentrator that used steam turbines and sufficient heat sinking to accomodate the night time power drop-off (read zilch!) it would supply the power needed for the entire continental United States. This is feasible, but not viable yet, due to the similar abundance of carbon based fuels and the lack of infrastructure to get this kind of juice to John and Jane Doe who might live in Virginia. Government incentives to use such technologies that have a long-term payoff need to be enacted on a scale that shows they can work...e.g. power an entire town of 50,000 (minus cars to start). That would shake up the complacent oil (read ENERGY) companies into going big. A community south of Calgary is off the grid for heating energy (natural gas) and way down for electricity comsumption. How did they do it? Simple: they DECIDED to do it and a group of people paid a premium to be part of it and reap the long-term benefits. If we wait for someone to do it for us it won't happen. It is as individual as Edison's experiments and subsequent decisions and actions.
i think this idea is fantastic, but in order for this idea to become more sustainable a material other than plastic needs to be used because plastic is made from oil.
The plastic (solar concentrator) you quoted as $2 will not be able to withstand the extremities of nature and wear and tear WILL damage this concentrator very fast. The solar concentrator will therefore collapse and the cost of maintenance will far exceed the cost of production. Emphasis should be placed on finding a light weight polymer with similar qualities and which is resistant to wear & tear and fairly cheap to replace this thin plastic.
You cannot create energy!!
all solar cells will generate more power when hit with concentrated light. the key is to cool them. this works well when you preheat water while cooling the solar cell.