tobiah@lemmy.world 3 days ago
“The lens makes it different from standard solar panels that convert sunlight to energy with average efficiency rates around 20%, per MarketWatch. Fraunhofer’s improved CPV cell has an astounding 36% rate in ideal conditions”
Why would I want to compare one panel’s average efficiency to another panels efficiency in ideal conditions?
eleitl@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
Marketing. Fresnel lenses are not going to do well with diffuse light.
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Maybe I’m misunderstanding but would diffuse light be what it’s going to be best at? While it’d be worse on a sunny day when there is an optimal direction for the light?
It’s the opposite of a light house fresnel lens - instead of scattering the light source evenly out, it’ll capture diffuse even incoming better and concentrate it on the photovoltaic cell? However it would be at the cost of being able to capture direct sunlight as only some of the lens would ever be in the best position to capture the direct rays?
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
No. Concentrated solar requires perfect alignment, dual axis tracking, to the sun. diffuse light does not concentrate.
A reasonable alternative design would be cheap ordinary PV cells with outward bubbles instead of inverted parabolas that would capture off axis light better on a fixed tilt.