Solar battery from IBM

IBM. reported a breakthrough in photovoltaics technology that could significantly reduce the cost of energy derived from sunlight.

To increase the power density of batteries, researchers have used a lens that allows you to collect on the surface of the semiconductor element of power to 230 watts per square centimeter. As a result, every square centimeter of the surface of the semiconductor elements can collect electrical current capacity of 70 watts - is five times higher than that of most modern conventional solar panels.

The new technology companies. IBM. was named CPV (Concentrator PhotoVoltaics - photovoltaic concentrator). The use of such hubs, says project leader Dr.. Supratik Guha. (Supratik Guha), allows up to 10 times to reduce the number of photovoltaic cells while maintaining the amount of energy produced. The amount of solar energy falling on the photocells pilot system in 2300 times the normal conditions of sunlight on a clear day.

One of the problems that researchers encountered during the development of photovoltaic concentrator solar cells themselves are heated. The focus of the lens temperature was such that even stainless steel melted. Using the technology of heat in the copper heat sinks with a film of liquid alloy of indium and gallium has helped reduce the temperature of the battery from 1600 up to 85 degrees Celsius. This technology is already used by. IBM. super- cooling circuits and computers.

For the production of a new type of solar panels require an effective and inexpensive optics such as flat Fresnel lenses, but this problem is completely solvable. Solar concentrators since the 70s of XX century. attracted the attention of. scientists, but today the company. IBM. was the first to provide acceptable cooling of solar cells, so that the CPV technology now has every chance of success.

source.