New solar panel promises cheaper electricity

An amazing report on a new solar panel design by V3Solar on blog tech CleanTechnica.  The new panels concentrate solar light up to 30 times on the conventional cell, increasing power output, yet keeping prices lower than conventional electricity.  This could be the revolution India needs to move it out of its energy woes.  Decentralised, privatised, democratized energy production away from the corrupt and inefficient public sector.

Anyone for a salary and fresh water?

This morning I come across this neat little oven that converts salt water into fresh water.  It can convert up to 5 litres of water a day along with a bonus of fresh salt.  Believing the Romans of yester-millennia that should be equivalent to a salary :)

Improving Solar cell panels.

Solar cells are becoming cheaper to make, which is why we are seeing a lot of renewed interest in them with many solar farms cropping up all over the world.  However, although the cell technology has been getting cheaper, it's has remained rather low.  From initial 12% conversion rates, the new technology available on the market has managed to improve somewhat to a 14% to18% efficiency rate... ie 18% of the sun's energy is converted to electric energy.  This due to various factors, but the main one being because the materials used for this are only able to absorb a certain part of the light energy which make up the sun's rays.  The sun's light is made up for a large spectrum such as the different colours that come from a rainbow, the UV light, the infra-red light which we feel as heat and so on.

Furthermore, this technology is only able to convert a theoretical maximum of 33% of the total solar energy. So even if this technology is improved in the future, it will never be able to achieve as good a conversion rate as other technologies which use more expensive materials and manufacturing techniques such as solar cells on satellites.

Now all this may be about to change as reported by gizmag.  The limitations of our current commercial grade solar cells are mainly due to the fact that it cannot absorb either high energy light or low energy light, it is only suited for a limited fraction of the light that makes up the spectrum of sun light.  New research suggest that a new technique could see a layer of chemicals interacting with sun light before it reaches the solar cells, whereby these chemicals would convert the low energy light present in sun light into a light that is better suited to be absorbed by the solar cell. 
Imagine, for simplicity, that sun light is made up of 3 type of energy light, red light (low energy), yellow (medium energy) and blue light (high energy).  Now, in this case, our solar cell can only absorb the yellow light, the red and blue being lost. The new chemical filter being proposed would absorb the red light and convert it into yellow light, thus the solar cell would get an extra dose of yellow, while the blue light would still be lost.

If this technology makes it to the manufacturing process, we could get solar panels that would convert up to 40% of solar energy.

Solarator, 2kVA, Made in India

Sustainable and cheap electricity, the solarator is ideal for your country property or farm.  It generates electricity during the day time to run a pump or some electrical equipment such as drill or a saw.  It can also be used to recharge a UPS system.  It comes equipped with 4 or 8 batteries depending on requirements and therefore has enough back up to provide electricity during the night.

Manufactured in Bangalore by a JV between HHV Solar Technologies Pvt. Ltd and  Raj Hamsa Pvt Ltd a company better known for its 2 seater microlight aircraft.  The price of a Solarator is expected to be about 3.5 lakh as it is yet to be fully commercialised in India.  It was recently displayed at the London Solar energy exhibition and made quite an impression, with many specialist in the field saying this is by far the best product on the market.  Way to go India!  For more details on the product check out this article.

Lions of renewable energy!

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_solar-power-cells-on-narmada-canal-to-light-up-rural-homes_1647046

The western Indian state of Gujarat is all set to become the first state in the country to generate solar power through panels mounted on a water body. Installation of panels on the canal will help in doing away with the need to acquire land. Evaporation of lakhs of litres of water will be prevented since the canal will be covered. And will generate clean energy. Generated solar power will be supplied to villages alongside the canal, which will lead to lower transmission losses aiding rural development. 

A great pioneering effort in renewable energy that will hopefully lead the way for future innovations!