well, adding lenses kinda requires motorizing the panels to track the sun, right? otherwise the “hot spot” is going to move around across the day/year
is there a way to shape the lens to mitigate this?
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
I’m not sure what to think about the Fraunhofer institute in general. They have made some nice discoveries in the past, such as audio compression algorithms and such. That is why i hyped them for a bit.
But they really disappointed me with their writings on solar panels in the past few years.
They said that the efficiency of solar panels today is too low to deploy them widely in practice, which is simply not true. They tried pushing Perovskite solar cells for no reason.
I’m not sure what to think about this idea. On one hand, adding lenses to solar parks makes them significantly more complicated and therefore expensive to build. Also, if the parks have complicated physical forms, they’re more susceptible to wind, and that could damage them.
On the other hand, yes, adding lenses means you need fewer actual solar panels for the same amount of energy harvested.
ernest314@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Honytawk@feddit.nl 2 days ago
You make them convex.
You can shape them that no matter how the light falls on it, it will align to the center. Kind of like how satellite dishes work but in reverse.
ernest314@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
You can shape them that no matter how the light falls on it, it will align to the center. Kind of like how satellite dishes work but in reverse.
how do you do this, actually? I’m curious about the details because I just watched a video on compound parabolic reflectors, haha
a regular (ideal) convex lens with a single focal point will have the image move around as the light source moves across the sky. AFAIK satellite dishes tend to be paraboloids, which focus parallel rays onto the focal point, and if you change the angle of the light source, you’ll start losing focus. Stuff like the DSN and radio telescopes absolutely do have to aim and track their targets (or are forced to follow the rotation of the earth).
satellite dishes that are aimed towards geostationary satellites don’t have to move (because their targets are stationary in the sky), while stuff like starlink tracks targets with a phased array.
Valmond@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Could have some refraction or hologram thing that bends the light the right way, maybe? Or like a matte glass that equalises the load.
Or why not just use (big) mirrors?
Won’t help with heat ofc!
ernest314@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Or why not just use (big) mirrors?
I mean, this is a thing with solar concentrators already, haha
and for those the heat is a feature :p
r_deckard@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I’d like to know what they’re going to do about the heating issue. Concentrating solar radiation carries with it an increased heat load. And heat reduces solar PV efficiency. I’m already losing about 30% in summer when the panels heat up.
Quexotic@infosec.pub 3 days ago
This was my first question too! I thought heat makes them wear out faster.
themurphy@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
It does. Also seems weird nobody thought of a magnifying glass before.
But its also the beauty in science. Now somebody else thought about it, and they might work harder to fix the next problem: Heat.
If that gets better now, solar panels will increase in output even more. There are so many technologies going into one product, and each field have its own experts.
I’m excited.
Honytawk@feddit.nl 2 days ago
They probably did, but like they said, the heating is probably the issue.
I can see them adding a cooling element. Maybe even water cooling.