Comments on: The Ultimate Solar Cell?

By: BreathontheWind

BreathontheWind — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:04:42 +0000

Concentrated systems can also be constructed using lenses rather than reflectors. This would allow some higher temps. There is no replacement however to simply gathering more sunlight. Heliostats on the ground might be employed (albeit less efficiently) to increase sunlight to roof mounted panels.

By: Jim Van Damme

Jim Van Damme — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:18:23 +0000

Lead selenide would seem to be cheaper than gallium arsenide. Unfortunately with all these thermionic approaches, they give max efficiency at higher temps, which means concentrating systems. They don’t lend themselves to panels on the roof.

By: Rojelio

Rojelio — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:57:55 +0000

Yea, I tried to get on my asphalt shingle roof the other day but it was too hot. And I live in Montana, so this doesn’t even compare to someplace like Las Vegas or Pheonix. Don’t we have any low-budget roof blankets that would capture some of this wasted heat and convert it to something useful like charging a big battery?

By: BreathontheWind

BreathontheWind — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:55:34 +0000

This is certainly useful when electricity is what is needed. We have also seen attempts to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells by capturing the energy as heat in a kind of CHP array. Heat also has many potential options for energy storage that are not available for electrical storage.