Friday, April 26, 2013

IBM experiments with concentrated solar

In honor of Earth Day, IBM announced a joint project with Swiss research university Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich and Airlight Energy Holdings SA, a Swiss-based solar firm, to develop a better parabolic dish for concentrated solar power.

The partners will be trying to create 80 percent conversion efficiency and the ability to concentrate sunlight to intensities up to 2,000 times the natural levels.

The prototype device is a multi-facet parabolic dish, whose mirrors track the sun. The mirrors beam the concentrated sunlight onto multiple microchannel-cooled 1 centimeter x 1 centimeter chips, each of which can produce between 200 and 250 watts on a sunny day.

If the high concentration photovoltaic thermal system is successful, it would take only 2 percent of the Sahara Desert's land area to supply electricity for the entire world.

For more of the Daily Tech article: dailytech.com

More Techwire stories

Port Authority of NY-NJ awards $3B in bridge contracts

Port of Houston to purchase 4 electric cranes

New satellite with helix antenna to track maritime shipping

Police commissioner: Facial recognition tech failed to ID Boston bombers

Click to browse past stories on these topics:

Logistics

Ports & Infrastructure

Economic Outlook

Environmental Impact

Technology