Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ...
by jes on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @08:39AM
(#6444146)
Do solar sites ever use mirrors and PV panels, in combination?
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Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ...
by _mulder_ on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @10:00AM
(#6444597)
Do you mean, concentrating sunlight onto PV? or Having PV cells that are also reflective?
Reflective PV cells/mirrors wouldn't work well as you're taking the energy out one way or another. The more you reflect, the less you can use for PV, and vice-versa.
Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ...
by jes on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @10:46AM
(#6444875)
Sorry for being unclear. I meant concentrating sunlight onto existing PV panels. I suppose that I'm assuming mirrors << PV in terms of cost.
Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ...
by ajays on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @11:11AM
(#6445038)
I've heard of some folks using a Fresnel lens to concentrate light onto a smaller area, where the silicon is. It improves the efficiency significantly, but can also cause heat issues (which can hurt efficiency).
Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ...
by jacquesm on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @02:24PM
(#6446330)
I've tried this. With standard PV panels going over 2:1 is not advisable. The panels will live a lot shorter and if you go higher than 2:1 they will break (wiring will de-solder, the plastic bits & pieces will melt and they sometimes simply stop working). I've tried watercooling as well (with very thin panels) and that works better but the lifespan reduction is still significant, you can see month-to-month performance degradation (as compared to a control that is running on 1 sun).
Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ...
by tlarkworthy on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @09:00AM
(#6444237)
Latest PV kinda use mirrors internally