Hewlett-Packard is licensing flat-panel display technology to a start-up that could lead to dramatically more productive--and aesthetically pleasing--solar panels.
The deal, announced Wednesday, allows Livermore, Calif.-based Xtreme Energetics to use HP-developed transparent transistors to bend light in concentrating photovoltaic, or CPV, solar arrays. CPV systems squeeze more electricity from panels by maximizing the light that hits solar cells.
Click on the image to see a photo gallery of utilty-scale concentrating solar power technologies.
(Credit: SolFocus)The company is in the process of raising an "imminent" $5 million series A round of venture funding, and it anticipates a series B $35 million round, CEO Colin Williams said.
It intends to have a first-generation solar array aimed at utilities available in 12 months, he said. A product for corporate rooftops is also in the works.
The transistor materials--made of environmentally benign zinc and tin--and related manufacturing techniques could still be used for very large flat displays, said Dan Croft, director of intellectual-property licensing at HP.
Xtreme Energetics will use the technology to create an electronic "tracker" that directs sunlight to hit solar cells straight-on to maximize exposure.
Typically, these trackers are mechanical devices such as ground-mounting systems that position cells to follow the light during the course of the day.
Xtreme says HP's electronics can do the same task of pointing light. But because it's not a motor-driven steel mount, the company will be able reduce the costs of CPV, Williams said.
"The fact that we are using an electronic mechanism to do tracking means the cost scaling in volume manufacturing will go much more like the cost scaling in the electronics industry, rather than (the) mechanical-manufacturing industry," he said.
The full design calls for a multilayered solar panel with the transparent electronic tracker, a plastic "internal reflection" concentrator, and a high-efficiency solar cell.
Because the tracker and concentrator are transparent, an artistic pattern could be put onto the panel, making it possible to use it on a building facade, Williams said.
Niche buster?
The HP-licensing deal is another sign of the active crossover of technologies and of people between clean tech and information technology. IBM, which has a Big Green Innovations initiative, is adapting chip fabrication techniques to solar power, including concentrators.
Click on the image to see a photo gallery of concentrating photovoltaic arrays.
(Credit: Amonix)Xtreme Energetics has yet to build a product or prototype. Yet its electronic-tracker design could give the budding CPV marketplace a boost.
At a seminar put on by Greentech Media last week, solar expert and Prometheus Institute President Travis Bradford forecast that concentrating solar power--both concentrating solar thermal and CPV--will account for tens of gigawatts of electricity in the next decade, primarily in .
CPV, specifically, remains relatively expensive and, unlike solar-thermal technology, cannot store electricity, Bradford noted. Also, concentrating solar technology works in areas of the globe with the best irradiance, or solar radiation, including the southwest United States, southern Spain, and North Africa.
As a result, he said the extent of the role solar-concentrating power will play in the future is uncertain.
"I firmly believe (CPV) is a market that will be very large, but it doesn't have the ability to work in every market," Bradford said.
Xtreme Energetics' Williams said the electronic tracker tackles one of the biggest concerns with concentrating photovoltaics: the high costs associated with lenses and mounting equipment.
"So long as concentrating PV uses mechanical trackers, it's going to be niche," he said.
Sunrgi is going to extremes to lower the cost of electricity from the sun.
The start-up on Tuesday came out of stealth and described its solar concentrator technology and business plans.
Sunrgi's 1-kilowatt array concentrates light 1,600 times to save money on solar cells.
(Credit: Sunrgi)It has built a prototype device that magnifies light 1,600 times onto expensive germanium solar cells. The company intends to produce the devices in 12 to 15 months, and says they will capable of generating electricity at 5 cents a kilowatt hour--competitive with coal-fired power plants.
By focusing light onto high-end cells, the device can convert 37 percent of sunlight to electricity--substantially higher than the 15 to 20 percent range for typical silicon solar panels. Concentration also allows manufacturers to use less material for cells, which is a large portion of a system's cost.
The company, founded by Silicon Valley veterans, plans to sell its systems to businesses and then utilities building solar power plants to meet peak power demands. The technology can be applied to residential homes as well.
By contrast, another concentrated PV start-up, SolFocus, magnifies light several hundred times, while Solaria only doubles or triples light concentration onto standard silicon cells.
One of the dangers of concentrating light is the heat that it generates, which will make solar cells less productive and, over time, damage them.
With Sunrgi's Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics system, the temperatures can go higher than 3,000 degrees. To address this, the company has developed a cooling mechanism to dissipate the heat and keep cells as cool as if there weren't lenses to magnify light.
Cool Earth Solar on Thursday said it has raised at least $21 million to further develop a solar generator that you could mistake for a shiny kiddie pool.
The Livermore, Calif.-based company said the Series A round, from undisclosed investors, could be augmented by other investors in 60 days.
A ballon that makes electricty.
(Credit: Cool Earth Solar)Cool Earth Solar has taken a radical approach to building a solar-power plant using a technique called concentrated solar photovoltaics, in which light is magnified onto solar cells to maximize electricity output.
It plans to manufacture plastic balloons, which will be suspended on metal and wire structures. These round balloons reflect light onto a solar cell to generate electricity.
Because its design uses relatively cheap and readily available components, these solar concentrators can generate electricity at a cost comparable to that of natural-gas plants. The inflated solar collectors can withstand 100 mile-per-hour wind.
The plastic solar collectors are mounted.
(Credit: Cool Earth Solar)Our goal from the very start was to find a clean-energy generation solution that could address the global scale of the carbon problem. We discarded everything that couldn't scale, relied on rare components, or had some other critical bottleneck. Ultimately, we developed a novel technology which radically reduces the amount of material in our system and balances labor and capital costs.
Although most people envision rooftop panels when they think of solar electricity, many new solar technologies are being developed for power plants.
Utilities in some states, notably California, need to comply with renewable-energy mandates. And certain regions, such as the Southwest U.S. desert and parts of Spain, are well-suited for solar-thermal power plants.
Concentrating solar photovoltaic arrays are also being tried for industrial-scale solar power, but unlike Cool Earth Solar's, these use sophisticated mounting systems that track the sun and expensive solar cells.
- prev
- 1
- next
