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New system aims to harness the full spectrum of available solar radiation.
The key to creating a material that would be ideal for converting solar energy to heat is tuning the material’s spectrum of absorption just right: It should absorb virtually all wavelengths of light that reach Earth’s surface from the sun — but not much of the rest of the spectrum, since that would increase the energy that is reradiated by the material, and thus lost to the conversion process.
Now researchers at MIT say they have accomplished the development of a material that comes very close to the “ideal” for solar absorption. The material is a two-dimensional metallic dielectric photonic crystal, and has the additional benefits of absorbing sunlight from a wide range of angles and withstanding extremely high temperatures. Perhaps most importantly, the material can also be made cheaply at large scales.
(Score: 4, Informative) by geb on Tuesday September 30 2014, @11:45AM
You have failed to read/understand even the summary. The material is not perfectly black, although it would look that way to humans. The idea was to have a material with the inverse absorbtion spectrum as Earth's atmosphere - i.e. strongly absorbing in the visible wavelengths that air allows through, but weakly absorbing/emitting in the rest of the spectrum.
Such a material is very highly specialised and fully deserves a distinct name. Anybody running a mirror array type solar farm would see a boost in efficiency above mere black material, through losing less heat to black body radiation.
I'm not convinced that concentrating arrays like that have much future in electrical generation, since photovoltaic panels can make much better use of efficiency of scale in manufacturing, but still an interesting concept being described here.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30 2014, @01:22PM
I'm not convinced that concentrating arrays
It would make better use in large mirror array concentrators. The kind that heat up salt. If it doesnt reflect light back out as easily it could also remove some of the problems with those sorts of setups. Blinding of airline pilots and attraction of birds. As big mirrors are dead easy to make. Concentrators have a better 'overnight base load' than solar cells. The downside is the maintenance of the pumps as salt is massively corrosive.
It seems to be made for exactly that sort of instillation.
If you combine it with a solar cell that perfectly reflects everything it doesnt use. That could be interesting too. As the rest could go into the concentrator.
Rooftop solar cells I think have a limited lifetime. As the power companies have realized they do not have the infrastructure for everyone to have one. No one wants to pay for it (especially the people buying the solar panels who have been sold the dream of 'free power'). The power companies will play regulatory games to really mess it up. They have the capital to do it too. I think the money party will soon end on them. You are already starting to see serious issues with it in Hawaii and Arizona. Which has nothing to do with the tech (which is only getting cheaper and better) but a money/political thing.
I remember the promise of nuclear 'too cheap to meter'. Too cheap to meter means a 'flat rate' to build the grid. You will start to see consumption only plans (what you have now but with more law behind it). You can generate all you like but if you use any you pay for it. Meaning you may get the hours of 11 to 2 free but the rest of the time when you need power you pay for it. No credit. Basically they will not buy your power. They are already starting to get rid of the subsidies. They may take it one step further and say you can not 'game the system' and do a shunt switch with a battery bank. My state already has 'gaming rules' bought and paid for by the power companies. You will then see full 'off the grid' AC/heat/refrigeration systems. Then laws against that and more regulatory goo.