Solar Power Systems
Posted: 2010-03-12
Solar power systems are a great way to reduce your energy costs dramatically, while adding a great deal of value to your property. Find out how they actually work wby reading this article.
5 Top Businesses to Benefit from Solar Power
Posted: 2009-11-03
In the Commercial climate, there are many businesses that stand to save thousands by utilizing solar power for some or all of their energy usage needs.
Solar Power Savings
Posted: 2009-10-05
Besides the roof systems, there are cost-effective solar projects for getting your hot water, heating your pool and warming your home. Let’s take a look at four common installations.
50 Percent Efficiency Solar Cell Project
Topic:
Photovoltaic Posted:2005-11-10
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The University of Delaware is leading a consortium of 15 universities, corporations, and laboratories that
plans to develop high efficiency solar cells with 50 percent efficiency in production. Allen Barnett, the principal
investigator and research professor in UD's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering says, "This
project requires the consortium to invent, develop and transfer to production this breakthrough solar cell.
One rarely gets an opportunity such as that." DARPA is supporting the consortium, and is calling upon the
consortium to develop 1,000 Very High Efficiency Solar Cell (VHESC) prototypes that are at least 50 percent
efficient. DARPA's interest is in powering portable devices for the military; however, this certainly has wide
civilian applications. Currently, production solar cells are only 15-20 percent efficient. Efficiency is how
completely a device functions. For instance, if a motor is 80 percent efficient, 20 percent of that energy
is wasted as heat and light. With solar cells, efficiency measures the percentage of possible power that the cell
converts into electricity. If you have an array of solar cells on your roof, you can double the power output using
the same square footage of solar cells if you double the efficiency. The technology being developed by the
consortium would more than double the current efficiency, which makes it much easier to power a home off of solar power.
For more information on this project, see this article.