Inhabitat: Energy company Sunrgi recently announced an astounding new solar system that will break our grids free from the fossil fuel lockdown. Their Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics promise a low-cost, high-efficiency system with an incredible projected energy pricing of 5 cents per kilowatt. This breakthrough puts solar on par with the cost of coal, natural gas, and other non-renewable energy sources.
If solar energy is ever going to live up to it’s world-changing potential, it’s going to have to mesh with our existing energy infrastructure, competing with coal and natural gas on price point. While traditional photovoltaic arrays span great expanses and struggle to keep costs down, Sunrgi’s system proposes a novel idea, making better use of fewer expensive materials.
The XCPV system is based on a principle blinding in its simplicity: use a magnifying glass to concentrate the sun’s energy into a single high efficiency solar cell. Each unit features a lens that magnifies the sun’s rays 2,000 times, focusing it onto a solar cell that converts more than 37% sunlight to energy. The result is a system that maximizes the potential output of each solar cell while minimizing cost and space required.
The units are modular and thus easily deployable on or off-grid, and they can be easily upgraded to accommodate future advancements in solar cell technology.
SOLAR ENERGY AS CHEAP AS COAL! [Inhabitat]
Cheap Solar
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I swear that I thought of this idea yesterday! Although I also was aiming for using the magnified sunlight’s heat to produce water vapor as another way to use the energy, because I have no idea as of now on how to produce a solar cell like the one they are proposing. I was also trying to figure out how plants get their energy from the sun. That’s probably the key to a better solar generator.
Yes but you need a Tracker. In 2 Years common Technology will also reach Grid Parity! I make you a offer for 1 MW starting at 3 Mio €.
the idea is great, its going to work in nigeria where electricity problem increase day by day, i will like to know more about the company that produce the product, may be i can distribute the products all over africa. nigeria alone has over 150 million population.
Pakistan is in urgent need of 5000MW with increasing need of 3MW / day. We have a lot of sunshine. What will be the initaial cost.
At what magnification will it burn down the cell. What is the process where we converge the sun rays to produce fire. Can we get more energy that way.