THE BEATZ & LYRICS SHOW
Beatz & Lyrics Show
RADIO SHOW MOBILE APPS
ARCHIVES

Posts Tagged ‘UV rays’

Technology: Transparent Solar Cells Designed To Turn Invisible UV Rays Into Renewable Energy Gains We Can See (Video)

Research at Michigan State University has yielded designs for a transparent solar panel capable of capturing solar energy. Professor Richard Lunt, MSU assistant professor and head of the research team, believes that the panel can be used in a variety of ways – like on tall buildings with lots of windows or mobile devices. The ultimate goal is to harvest solar energy via surfaces in such a way that people do not even notice (according to a press statement from Lunt).

Most solar panels capture visible spectrum light, letting invisible ultraviolet waves – the bigger portion of the spectrum – go to waste. The transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC) doesn’t capture visible light, but non-visible ultraviolet waves are absorbed by the device, converted, and sent to the edge of the concentrator, where photovoltaic (PV) solar cells convert light energy to electricity.

One caveat: Right now the TLSC is performing at around 1% efficiency, but the MSU team believes that 5% optimization is achievable. Currently, non-transparent luminescent concentrators (current tech) max out at 7% efficiency.

But before you get pessimistic about the low numbers, compare them to using ZERO percent of the abundant untapped energy that we are being drenched in daily!

Read the rest of this entry »

AFFILIATED SPONSORS