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Old Posted Nov 14, 2013, 7:24 PM
amor de cosmos amor de cosmos is offline
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Quote:
How to Manage ‘Creative Destruction’ Caused by Solar in Power Markets
The Energy Gang speaks with FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff about regulation in a distributed energy world.

Stephen Lacey
November 13, 2013

What does the nation's top energy regulator, FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, think about the future of solar?

"I think we're seeing the Moore's law cost curve, together with entrepreneurial spirit, coming into an industry in a way that is going to overtake a monopolistic, non-innovative structure."

This week, we feature a live podcast from the MDV-SEIA Solar Focus 2013 conference in Washington, D.C. The Energy Gang took the stage and discussed the merits of East Coast solar policy and innovative business strategies, and chatted with Chairman Wellinghoff about the "creative destruction" caused by distributed generation.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...-power-markets

Quote:
Solar cells utilize thermal radiation
Research News Nov 04, 2013

Thermal radiation from the sun is largely lost on most silicon solar cells. Up-converters transform the infrared radiation into usable light, however. Researchers have now for the first time successfully adapted this effect for use in generating power.

There is more to solar radiation than meets the eye: sun- burn develops from unseen UV radiation, while we sense infrared radiation as heat on our skin, though invisible to us. Solar cells also ‘see’ only a portion of solar radiation: ap- proximately 20 percent of the energy contained in the solar spectrum is unavailable to cells made of silicon – they are unable to utilize a part of the infrared radiation, the short-wavelength IR radiation, for generating power.

Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, together with their colleagues at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, have now for the first time made a portion of this radiation usable with the assistance of a practical up-converter. The technology that transforms infra- red into usable light has been known about since the 1960s. However, it has only been investigated in connection with solar cells since 1996. “We have been able to adapt both the solar cells and the up-converter so as to obtain the biggest improvement in efficiency so far,” reports Stefan Fischer happily, a scientist at ISE. The potential is big: silicon solar cells theoretically convert about thirty percent of sunlight falling upon them into electrical power. Up-converters could increase this portion to a level of forty percent.
http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/re...radiation.html
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