Solar goes Hyper in the U.S.
HyperSolar magnifying film can increase solar panel efficiency by up to 300%, making solar competitive with fossil fuels.
Image courtesy of HyperSolar - Physorg.com: 100 percent renewables by 2030
- WWF: 100 percent renewables (no nuclear) by 2050
- AWEA: Wind cost-competitive with gas
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Comments
If this technology goes to market, more homeowners will be able to afford solar on their homes...me included. I just hope the solar efficiency keeps going up with the price going down to make it affordable for everyone.
Please stick to the facts and stop blatantly hawking an agenda so much. This article, like many of your recent contributions, is a blend of interesting and useful data mixed into a slurry of rhetoric-laced opinion and wild conjecture. You have a gift for technical writing, but this bad habit is reducing the value of your articles and your credibility as a writer. Given your level talent, I hope you overcome serious flaw before it drags you permanently down to the level of a mere hack.
To quote that it has 300% better efficiency doesn't mean anything. 300% better than what? If you take the average solar panel efficiency (around 10%) that brings us up to 30% but who knows? This is just spin reporting.
30% or even 10% efficiency is not bad at all. Just take into consideration that you get an output of 30 calories out of an input of FREE 100 calories. It's not like the case of a diesel generator, when you pay for fuel and the don't get the expected amount of electricity. These are great efforts that would bring hope for greener & safer future for coming generations.
Great news there! But just want to p*ss on your bonfire. The yanks didn't invent the solar panel sorry. It was a french guy called Antoine Cesar Becquerel
The Frenchman developed the theory and the American invented the device that made it relevant.
so you agree the french invented it and the americans used his invention? i suppose you also think americans invented the jet engine, the internal combustion engine and electricity because you also make them?
Electricity was discovered it wasn't invented.
Edmond Becquerel, a French scientist, discovered the photo-voltaic effect. He did not make solar panels nor did he even theorize how one could be produced.
William Grylls Adams, an English professor, and Richard Evans Day, also English, created the first crude solar cell. It did not create enough power to run any electrical devices they had but proved that a solar panel was possible.
The first solar panel that generated enough power to be usable was done in Bell Labs in the.... More
I see a lot of debate over weather or not this will heat up or cool down the earth... The laws of thermal dynamics state that the universe is always directed towards disorder. Things become more random, etc... We will never, no matter how efficient we become, get around this, we will always generate heat. Heck we waste more energy than we use just making it, let alone transporting it. It's a good thing that the Earth does vent off energy too; an amazing self equalizing mechanism she.... More
When a solar panel absorbs energy it is absorbing energy that is bombarding the Earth anyway. That is far better than releasing stored energy by burning. Yes if it spins an electric motor or is used to power a PC the appliance will release some heat at the other end of the process. But it is energy that already would have struck the Earth anyway. Burning fuels to cook or stay warm is at the same level of a cave dweller. Solar is a real breakthrough.
Dear Readers in the field of Solar Electricity,
This concept presented by Hyper Solar is for sure very Innovative and also completely relevant from the physical point of view ! I regard magnyfying solar irradiation in this way is a smart idea in order to bring costs for PV electicity down on more competitive levels. Now, what´s needed is a production scheme to realise this on an industrial scale and also a policy in the buiding sector which supports the installation and integration of.... More
Is it possible to create a spray on PV layer that can be applied to any surface?
the article from wwf states that 100% renuable energy will be produced by 2050 ... there is still a long way to go ... who knows it can happen or it might not happen ??? and billons of dollors would be wasted ...
Currently Wholesale prices for Solar panels in China are in freefall trading around $1 a watt. When they hit the magic 50 cents a watt price then solar power will become competitive with fossil fuels. I'm not replacing my power company with solar if it amounts to prepaying for 20 years worth of power upfront. I'll do it when the total cost of the equipment is under $5,000 installed for a 5kw/hour capacity system. We're not that far from that pricing point now. All I can say is GO CHINESE. The.... More
Again words like "theoretically" are used to explain the coming wonders of free energy that are always 20-50 years away. What happens until we reach that promised land is never really explained.
And, a claimed 300% increase in efficiency results in a 50% cost savings for a home installation? Must be using union labor...
I think what the article didn't spell out was the fact that the hypercell layer is expected to be more expensive than a simple glass layer thereby increasing the cost of a solar panel while increasing its efficiency. This sounds like an excellent trade-off, as 'hypercell' panels should come down in price over time, and the effective cost savings could approach or exceed the 300% mark.
Free energy? I must have missed that part... I didn't see anything about "free energy," I just saw a claim of increased efficiency in a fairly inefficient technology.
Maybe I'm just not clever enough to understand what I'm reading? (Well, maybe SOMEONE here isn't clever enough to understand what they are reading...)
in any power plant to produce electricity, whether operated by oil, coal, wind or water power - installations are a MUST to convert from one type of energy to another. These installations cost money anyway. When people say "FREE" energy when discussing solar or wind energy, they refer that the input for the system is FREE, unlike traditional fuels (coal, oil). you can't expect to get entirely free energy unless there's no conversion is needed - for example if you use wind energy to fly a.... More
..it is possible the 300% increase in efficiency requires a more expensive manufacturing process. They didn't say "a 300% increase in efficiency with the same production costs."
But, hey, far easier to reflexively demonize unions than to engage your brain for a few moments and realize that unions have nothing to do with the story, right?
As far as I know, we are still living in a free society, and if you do not approve of something you are not compelled to purchase it with the exception of car insurance. The right wing nuts love to critisize everything except letting churches and church related activities get away without paying their fair share of taxes, and letting idiots purchase deadly guns and ammunition. The same folks that argue against solar power are the ones that scream the loudest when the price of gasoline goes up. .... More
actually i don't understand how some people don't see that heading to solar & wind energy is a MUST! how many coming years they think we can depend on oil, coal, or even nuclear fuel?!
agree :)
Actually condo owners in Florida are required to insure the exterior of their buildings to protect the banks from losses. Then we are required to have another policy to cover the interior of our homes under the reasoning that following a storm or other event things like mildew can take over and effect an entire building if the unit owner is not insured sufficiently to fix the problems immediately. Even notions like a driver's license are expenses generated in order to protect the general public.
.... More
"and if you do not approve of something you are not compelled to purchase it with the exception of car insurance."
Yeah, and now health insurance and then....what next?
But if the government were to tax religious organizations, that would be a violation of the much-touted-by-the-left separation of church and state. Are you ok with it in this case because it benefits you?
Part of the reason that churches are tax exempt is that the money that they spend on the public good. Churches normally do worthwhile things. Tax money is also intended to do worthwhile things. Churches should not have a tax expense. The other factor is safety. If a church could be taxed the auditors would need a membership list in order to make certain that all contributions are reported. The Jews have a great deal of personal experience of what can happen when "lists" are available to a.... More
The left wing nuts had control of congress for 4 years, 2 of them with a left wing president. I did not see them in a big hurry to change any of the items your were complaining about. Easy to see from your post you are anti-religion. That is your right in a free society. Unless you have your mind glued totaly shut, you would have to admit religion does bring some positives to society (I am not says all religions and not everything about even some religions). Unless you are one of those who.... More
I live in Southern New Mexico. Two-and-a-half years ago we put a 2.4 kw solar system on our rooftop. We are tied to the grid. We haven't paid a single electric bill since we installed the system. We get lots of sun and we sure need the air conditioning in the summer. I'm glad that research is coming up with more efficient ways to generate renewable electricity.
I want the US to not be dependent on other countries for our oil. I'd like to see electric cars. I know solar isn't for.... More
glad to hear such a success story. you know, solar energy will be a MUST not only for the US and western countries. even here in Egypt, we currently pay a lot of attention and efforts to install wind and solar power plants - we have a lot of sun radiation here :). although we produce oil, but it's a plan for the future and coming generations. it's also the case in many African countries, which don't have fuel resources at all, and have difficulties securing their needs. wish you best of success..... More
Hi Sandy, that's a bit difficult to believe. I am absolutely not saying that you're not telling the truth. It's just that with an AC running for a typical 3 bed-room home (just assuming), televisions on, cooking using oven pan, maybe your husband/wife working on the garage, someone took a shower and using the hair dryer, although everything happening all at once might not be that common, the typical electricity used can exceed 5kw for an average household. Do you get paid by the utility company.... More
Ooops, a correction, I mentioned 2.4 kW is not a lot of energy, it's actually a unit of power. So, that's not a lot of power.
You forget that a grid connected system like her's feed excess power to the grid when it's not being used, then pulls more out of the grid (at night, when it's cloudy) when household use exceeds panel output. The sum total of power used in a year is less than the sum total of power produced by the panels. When she's brewing coffee and running that hair dryer in the morning, she's pulling from the grid. When she's at work and the lights are off, she's providing power to the grid.
you forget that whilst a grid sounds great, during the peak load when everyone wants to be doing these things NO ONE is feeding power in because its NIGHT TIME. its marvelous that whilst she is at work she is feeding power in BUT all this does is keep the grid ticking over in low use period. the big generators kick in during peak load time and charge big dollars for their energy on the spot market. unless you build monster battery parks somewhere the whole notion of a grid system is just a.... More
It is amazing how the subject and technology discussed here applies to a company trying to say that they have a new design and asking for people to buy their stock.
We have seen all that in the past. Snake oil salesman abound on the internet.
They even get professors, scientists in their boards to make it more real.
Can these guys get a life?
If they were really that innovative all they needed to do is to patent their design and go to any large producer and if what.... More
It is just another concentrator. Maybe cheaper than others, big deal! Quoting a number like 300% improvement is nothing but marketing hype, simply dishonest.
If you had any clues you would know that this is not a concentrator but actually a "SEPARATOR". There is big difference there. I am not telling you what it is because your brain does not have the capacity to know the difference.
"I am not telling you what it is because your brain does not have the capacity to know the difference."
What an astonishingly childish comment.
Enter your comments
Listen Basilio, I know more of these things than you'll ever able to dream. I did not go into detail. Separating, as you put is, the sun's spectrum maybe new to you, but it is standard in the field of high efficiency, e.i. expensive, solar technology. Repeat, this field extremely mature, there no magical breakthroughs left, just slow plodding.
Nature relies on sunshine falling on the ground to keep the Earth's temperatures stable. Absorbing the suns energy and converting it to electricity will result in vast areas under solar arrays becoming permafrost, leading the global cooling. The greater the efficiency of the solar cells, the faster the global cooling will occur.
Under natural conditions, a significant proportion of sunlight (and sun energy) is reflected back into space. Solar panels are designed to trap as much of it as possible. Consequently, solar panels should contribute to a net warming of the Earth. My guess is this is much less a factor than the world's asphalt highways, but it's still a net gain of energy.
When a solar cell converts light to electricity the energy is not destroyed and it is not reflected back into space. virtually all of the energy will EVENTUALLY be converted to heat even if it is used in efficient devices. The operation of a solar powered air conditioner will generate heat through the operation of the electric motor, for instance (this is in addition to the home's/building's interior heat being carried outside).
By your logic there should be permafrost under every building. News flash: there isn't except in areas where there is permafrost already (because the sun doesn't heat the ground daily for large portions of the year). And since most solar panels are mounted on existing buildings, your assertion is doubly ridiculous. But even if it was true, the additional cooling could help the global warming...
Ba-hahaha!!!
I can't possibly imagine the Earth being covered with so many solar arrays that it would comprise enough shade that it results in permafrost. Also, increasing the efficiency of the solar cells does not change the amount of the sun's energy that falls on the ground vs the solar panels. It just that the solar panels are able to USE more of the energy that falls on them.
Tongue-in-cheek comment: Maybe a little bit of global cooling with counteract the supposed global warming??
I could be wrong on this, so bear with me... but I'm pretty sure my electricity is not generated by gasoline. So everyone keeps complaining about our dependence on foreign oil... so how is replacing coal/ nuclear power with solar-power going to reduce how much gasoline we use?
