Solar Power Without The Panels?
posted by: Beth B. 18 days ago
Despite a significant boom in the demand for solar power and the sophistication of photo-voltaic technology, many people still reluctant to outfit their homes with the hardware that's needed to take advantage of this free and clean source of energy.
What's keeping the average home or business owner from taking advantage of the lower utility bills that solar power has to offer? Well, among other things, many are turned off by the idea of plunking large, bulky, black panels on top of their home's roof.
Thanks to a new technology being developed by scientists at Georgia Tech University, the equipment needed to use solar power might become much more subtle in the near future.
MSNBC recently reported that instead of using traditional solar panels, the Georgia Tech scientists are working to capture sunlight and turn it into electricity using fiber optics cables coated with zinc oxide, the same white compound lifeguards slather on their noses.
The fiber optic cables, each one two to three times the width of a human hair, could be installed on the roof of a house, car or any other structure with almost total invisibility.
One of the biggest hindrances to widespread use of solar power is that, while highly efficient, conventional solar cells are easily damaged, require intense heat to operate at optimum levels, and are very expensive to produce; a cost that is passed on to home and business owners who seek to use them.
Fiber optic photovoltaics, on the other hand, are relatively easy and inexpensive to produce. A solution of zinc oxide is heated to about 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit), about the same temperature as a cup of coffee. The cables are then dipped into the zinc oxide and allowed to dry.
Embed the fiber optics in the walls of a house, or the roof of a car, expose one end of the fiber to light and attach some wiring, and the electricity will start to flow.
Raymond Saluccio, CEO of New Jersey based EarthSure, recently announced his company's plans to route light, be it from the sun or incandescent light bulbs, using fiber optic cables connected to underground solar panels.
Known as SubSolar, the plan could generate solar power 24 hours a day, seven days a week in hospitals or office buildings where the lights are always on (MSNBC).
What's keeping the average home or business owner from taking advantage of the lower utility bills that solar power has to offer? Well, among other things, many are turned off by the idea of plunking large, bulky, black panels on top of their home's roof.
Thanks to a new technology being developed by scientists at Georgia Tech University, the equipment needed to use solar power might become much more subtle in the near future.
MSNBC recently reported that instead of using traditional solar panels, the Georgia Tech scientists are working to capture sunlight and turn it into electricity using fiber optics cables coated with zinc oxide, the same white compound lifeguards slather on their noses.
The fiber optic cables, each one two to three times the width of a human hair, could be installed on the roof of a house, car or any other structure with almost total invisibility.
One of the biggest hindrances to widespread use of solar power is that, while highly efficient, conventional solar cells are easily damaged, require intense heat to operate at optimum levels, and are very expensive to produce; a cost that is passed on to home and business owners who seek to use them.
Fiber optic photovoltaics, on the other hand, are relatively easy and inexpensive to produce. A solution of zinc oxide is heated to about 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit), about the same temperature as a cup of coffee. The cables are then dipped into the zinc oxide and allowed to dry.
Embed the fiber optics in the walls of a house, or the roof of a car, expose one end of the fiber to light and attach some wiring, and the electricity will start to flow.
Raymond Saluccio, CEO of New Jersey based EarthSure, recently announced his company's plans to route light, be it from the sun or incandescent light bulbs, using fiber optic cables connected to underground solar panels.
Known as SubSolar, the plan could generate solar power 24 hours a day, seven days a week in hospitals or office buildings where the lights are always on (MSNBC).
Read more: technology, innovation, renewable energy, environment & wildlife, solar power
comments
Forgive me, but I must take exception to three statements in the above article, which are completely inaccurate.
Panels are "easily damaged". Perhaps if you shot them with a gun, but the demonstration provided by one of the local dealers is that he used to drive golf balls at the panels. No damage.
Granted, that is a somewhat extreme demo, but I believe it soundly refutes the easily damaged claim. Mine have been on the roof since 1997, so far so good.
And as for "require intense heat", absolutely the reverse is true. The cooler a panel runs, the better it works.
And last but not least, the ever popular "very expensive".
That is a myth which is fast becoming obsolete.
Be advised that solar panels are now available for $1.50 a watt. Yes, they used to be expensive, but then so did every other technology when it was in its' infancy. Solar is maturing very rapidly, and thank goodness for that.
Would I like to have fiber optic produced power? You bet! But as with any other idea, it will need to be worked out. The purpose of the fiber optics is to actually deliver the light to some sort of a receptor, which in turn will produce the power. I foresee the day when we have fiber optics delivering light to some kind of magnifying device, which in turn will shine on a highly efficient - 35% range - mini solar panel.
Get a few million of these guys made and installed and we will all be in business. Home Depot will have stuff like this on the shelves in the next 10 years.
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I don't hear much mention of solar tiles which blend in with the roof. Fiber optics sounds so promising, as long as whoever develops and markets the product is as equally concerned with people as with profits. Obsolescence to oil, coal and nuclear power!
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Also check out Magnetic Generators on You Tube.
One man has created a magnetic generator that produces enough electricity to run a house over 24 K a day. It makes five times more power than it uses and can be instaled in a small space and literely run forever.
It can also be used for running an automobile. This is the future of energy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efCelx7qe_M
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I am currently building a house and would like very much to know how I can install Fiber optic photovoltaics in my building process. I am also interested in investing some capitol in a promising company that is trying to produce this product.
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One of the reasons that solar power is not happening as fast as it should, is because Big Oil is blocking the research. Who killed
the electic car?
Gordon Wirth
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Ya know, this article makes me ponder more of what it alludes to rather than what it points out.
In being surrounded by life in all forms, we pretty much take it for granted. As far as the universe goes though, life is a very rare
commodity.
Let's see here, for you to have come into being your parents had to procreate at one precise moment to allow that one specific male haploid (sperm), out of competing millions, to unite with that one particular female egg that dropped from thousands of others. Throw that back to your grandparents and all your other ancestors repeating the process to derive you as a living breathing individual, your odds of being are insurmountable, but yet you are. Kind of like that phrase: "I am only one, but I am one."
Even an individual blade of grass is a miracle in coming into being and that blade of grass has the information instilled in it the ability to convert raw solar radiation into harnessed energy in ways we haven't even began figuring out as yet.
So while we're still dealing with complicated and cumbersome photo voltaic cells for sun energy conversion, keep that lil' blade of grass in mind would ya...
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Another reason for not installing solar panels in Florida is the high-wind storms that will rip the panels off the roof, along with the roof, and become ballistic debris.
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I live in a Condo Community in Florida and tried to get the management to put solar panels on the roofs (which have to be done anyway) but they refused, saying that they are not ready for that as yet. Perhaps this new system might work..
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Interesting! Let's not forget that there is another form of solar without panels.... it's called a skylight :-). I have several, including a couple of tubular skylights (solar tubes). They work!
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With all the advances in technology over the past 30 years, you'd think someone could make solar and/or wind affordable without being unweildy. Let's hope photovoltaics become an alternative to solar panels.
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