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Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Solar Concentrators

Solar Concentrators

July 29, 2008
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/080729_sciup_conc.mp3

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BOB HIRSHON (host):
More powerful solar power. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Solar power is a great idea, but solar panels are expensive. Now, a new technique could drive down the cost. MIT electrical engineer Marc Baldo and his colleagues have developed a transparent dye that can be coated on an ordinary glass window. The dye collects sunlight and then re-focuses it onto solar cells around the window’s perimeter.

MARC BALDO (Massachusetts Institute of Technology):
You’ll get slightly less efficiency – if everything else is held the same – but hopefully save a lot of money by using a lot less solar cells.

HIRSHON:
Right now, you need big, expensive mirrors that track the sun throughout the day to get the same effect. Baldo says the system can potentially focus a hundred times more light onto a solar cell than direct sunlight would. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the Science Society.

Category: Daily ShowTag: Chemistry, Climate & Weather, Engineering & Technology, Environment & Conservation, Materials Science
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