The Solar Sunflower is the latest innovation in solar panels and it’s so pretty that you’ll forget it actually has a serious function. But that’s not the best part—it’s super efficient too. The panel developers are describing the technology as capable of concentrating sunlight 2,000 times, and when you find out what output it’s delivering, this won’t sound like an exaggeration.
The Solar Sunflower: IBM has a functional, aesthetic solution
Airlight Energy, a Swiss company, and IBM Research in Zurich, a development branch of the US-headquartered multinational technology company, collaborated to develop the 33-foot tall Solar Sunflower and it’s a clear success. Airlight Energy is behind the Sunflower’s reflectors and superstructure, and the photovoltaics are provided by IBM.
The panels used in the array combine photovoltaic solar power and concentrated solar thermal power in one attractive unit, and the smart technology utilizes a variety of reflector materials that result in the panels all looking slightly different to each other. Some of the reflector segments are covered to prevent powerful rays being radiated in the nearby environment, and others are covered to protect them from the elements.
Here’s the best news: The Solar Sunflower delivers a superb total efficiency of 80%, which can be applied to generating electricity or heating water.
What technology is the Solar Sunflower using to deliver such high output?
The sunlight-concentrating reflector technology that the Solar Sunflower panels employ is referred to as HCPVT, which is short for “highly efficient concentrated photovoltaic/thermal.” It’s capable of concentrating sun radiation over 2,000 times on a single point.
Airlight Energy’s head of research, Gianluca Ambrosetti, explained that the highly efficient photovoltaic cells are built to generate electricity with such a high degree of concentrated energy without melting in the process, which is a significant achievement.
Concentration of radiation is the key to 80% efficiency
The Sunflowers feature a series of liquid-cooled microchannel receivers, each equipped with an array of multi-junction photovoltaic chips. Each HCPVT can produce enough power to supply several homes, so these are not small-scale systems (unlike these mini panels that look like leaves).
The solar array assembly features a 430.5-square foot parabolic dish coated with 36 plastic foil elliptic mirrors that are just 0.2 mm thick. The HCPVT system prototype captures radiation from the sun and concentrates it onto several liquid-cooled receivers. Each receiver contains an array of 0.39-square inch chips generating up to 57 watts of electrical power during a typical sunny day’s operation. This combines to produce 12 kW of electrical power and 20 kW of heat.
The benefits of solar electricity generation
As the world moves to new ways of producing clean energy, solar power is becoming one of the most efficient and practical options. Here are the reasons why solar energy is one of the fundamental solutions in the renewable power world:
- Clean and sustainable: Solar electricity cannot be depleted and it doesn’t produce harmful by-products.
- Carbon footprint reduction: Solar energy doesn’t rely on the burning of fossil fuels, which lowers carbon emissions.
- Energy independence: Countries that reduce their dependence on fossil fuels will develop more robust economies.
- Economic growth and job creation: The installation, operation, maintenance, and development of solar power systems create employment. Countries that manufacture and export solar equipment benefit from GDP revenue.
The HCPVT system is estimated to have a lifespan of around 60 years with adequate maintenance. This includes replacing the shielding foil and the elliptic mirrors (every 10 to 15 years, depending on environmental conditions). The PV cells will require replacement at the end of their operational life, which is around 25 years.
Considering the aesthetic appeal of the Solar Sunflowers as well as their fantastic efficiency, they may well become one of the most popular and adoptable medium-scale solar options on the commercial market. A similar project is being undertaken by a company in Sturgeon Bay whose solar arrays also resemble flowers.