Submitted on January 26th, 2008 by Dr. Howard Goodell, Sc.D. (not verified)
Hello --
Truly Dr. Luque's is a far-out and revolutionary proposal! I did some thinking about the possible implications. Although I haven't worked in this field, I think that heliostats for solar power towers could be very cheap (my model is reflective Mylar kites aimed by $1 distributed microcontrollers). So high-efficiency concentrated-solar power generation could also be very cost-effective, despite needing relatively sophisticated and expensive technology at the towers.
A further gain in efficiency may be possible. The long infrared radiation no solar cell utilizes could be separated out with wavelength-selective mirrors (WSM) (note that ThermoPhotoVoltaic or TPV systems require these to work at all.) The infrared could be collected to power Stirling or steam engines as in standard solar thermal systems. What would the theoretical limit of efficiency be for such a system? If the other 37% of total sunlight could be separated and concentrated efficiently, perhaps achieving a Carnot efficiency of 33%, then the theoretical conversion efficiency would be a shocking 63+12=75% of total solar irradiance.
Of course, there will be many, many difficulties achieving anything like it, but that's an impressive goal. In my 2 decades in the semiconductor industry, I saw seemingly impossible progress, limited only by basic physics. It seems to me that some equivalent of Moore's Law in the relatively virgin research field of solar energy (no offense!) could bring us very close to these physical limits. Today's global energy and climate crises provide motivation for the kind of sustained, massive R&D efforts that could achieve that.
Highly efficient and cost-effective solar plants, widely implemented in desert regions where there are few alternative uses for the land, could play a significant role in world energy economics in the coming decades. Here's hoping!
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Conversion efficiency including thermal could be even higher
Submitted on January 26th, 2008 by Dr. Howard Goodell, Sc.D. (not verified)Hello --
Truly Dr. Luque's is a far-out and revolutionary proposal! I did some thinking about the possible implications. Although I haven't worked in this field, I think that heliostats for solar power towers could be very cheap (my model is reflective Mylar kites aimed by $1 distributed microcontrollers). So high-efficiency concentrated-solar power generation could also be very cost-effective, despite needing relatively sophisticated and expensive technology at the towers.
A further gain in efficiency may be possible. The long infrared radiation no solar cell utilizes could be separated out with wavelength-selective mirrors (WSM) (note that ThermoPhotoVoltaic or TPV systems require these to work at all.) The infrared could be collected to power Stirling or steam engines as in standard solar thermal systems. What would the theoretical limit of efficiency be for such a system? If the other 37% of total sunlight could be separated and concentrated efficiently, perhaps achieving a Carnot efficiency of 33%, then the theoretical conversion efficiency would be a shocking 63+12=75% of total solar irradiance.
Of course, there will be many, many difficulties achieving anything like it, but that's an impressive goal. In my 2 decades in the semiconductor industry, I saw seemingly impossible progress, limited only by basic physics. It seems to me that some equivalent of Moore's Law in the relatively virgin research field of solar energy (no offense!) could bring us very close to these physical limits. Today's global energy and climate crises provide motivation for the kind of sustained, massive R&D efforts that could achieve that.
Highly efficient and cost-effective solar plants, widely implemented in desert regions where there are few alternative uses for the land, could play a significant role in world energy economics in the coming decades. Here's hoping!