Solar-Powered Home, No Panels Needed
July 10, 2008
A "solar concentrator" might sound like something an evil genius comes up with to destroy the Big City in a comic book, but it's actually a way to make solar power more accessible. Engineers at in MIT's electrical engineering and computer science department recently made it possible for regular old windows to harness solar energy and power a building with it.
Marc Baldo, associate professor of electrical engineering at MIT, led a team of scientists that used special dyes to coat the windows, which helps them effectively absorb the light. The light is then successfully collected around the window edges by solar cells (see the rad photo). Baldo and his team knew solar collectors had been used in large, pricey mirror setups, and thought they could work on a smaller scale.
In an article set to be published in tomorrow's issue of Science, Baldo reports that solar collectors increase the amount of electricity a solar cell can harness by a factor of over 40, and they can make existing solar panel systems 50 percent more efficient. Those are some sunny numbers. That efficiency could make solar power cheaper. In addition, three grad students from the research team are starting their own company, called Covalent Solar--gotta love that name--to bring this technology to a store near you. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for it...after I figure out how to get my windows to close completely.
Photo: Organic solar concentrators. Credit: Donna Coveney, MIT
Comments
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Your tone is slightly mocking, but the research you describe is important. Question is, re retrofitting, Can this stuff be applied to existing windows or does it require bust-the-budget, plunder the retirement fund installation of all new windows?
Posted by: Wayne Dickson | July 13, 2008 at 08:40 PM
Hi Wayne,
Thank you for your comment--I welcome feedback. Not sure where you got the mocking part--unless you're referring to my self-deprication. But yes, this is neat technology that has a lot of potential. My understanding is that it can be applied to existing windows with some retrofitting, although I'd want to check with Professor Baldo to be sure. Meanwhile, here's the Science abstract: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/321/5886/226.
Posted by: Alyssa | July 13, 2008 at 09:47 PM
I'm very happy to see this, it seems like a pretty obvious idea in retrospect, but then isn't everything?
I've been working on the side of a house for the last week (painting) and I notice that it was built extremely well for noon sunlight, the ac never runs at all between 11:30 or so and almost 2:30 before it starts up (assuming hot and sunny) but they have so much glass on all sides of the house, they could probably retrofit and run that ac with this technology. Add a good battery of decent capacity cells, and they would probably cut their piped gas cost in half (on the mountain they lose power quite often, and have a gas generator) and that'd be worth the installation cost alone I'd imagine.
Thanks for the links and the info.
Posted by: Joe | July 14, 2008 at 06:38 PM
Most houses have a sunny side that gets most of the solar exposure. so Meaning many windows wouldn't need to be replaced or retro fitted. In the case of my house, only abaout 25% would get full exposure all day long. Which leads me to wonder, what amount of window surface area would be needed to employ this technology successfully?
The collective surface area of 25% of the windows in my house would add up to a pretty big solar collector surface.
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Posted by: Mark Greene | July 24, 2008 at 04:09 AM