Solar energy is of growing interest and importance in the world, and optics play a big role. Optical design is needed for concentrating photovoltaic systems as well as solar thermal systems (although the optics in those systems are often a bunch of flat mirrors tracking the sun). ORA’s illumination engineers have been working on a lot of solar technologies the last few years, and we have developed some special software tools to help out with this work.
LightTools image of solar trough system
There are some enormous solar thermal installations operating in Spain and the United States, with more on the way in the next few years. But sometimes improvements in solar energy performance come down to the small things – and making the small things smaller. For example, an article in MIT Technology Review, “More Efficient, and Cheaper, Solar Cells” (http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23459/), discusses improvements to conventional solar cell manufacturing that could significantly increase the efficiency of multicrystalline silicon cells and bring down the cost of solar power by about 20 percent. This development was announced by a startup company, 1366 Technologies of Lexington, MA. The key to this work is figuring out how to reduce the shadowing and rejected photons caused by metallic conductors on the surface of the solar cell. People have found various ways to do this, but 1366 Technologies claims to be able to do it very cheaply with methods that fit well into standard production processes. They’re looking at increasing cell efficiency from the current typical 15-16% to 18% right away, with hopes of reaching 19% after further development. This has been demonstrated at production scales, not only in the lab.
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