Fully transparent solar panels: mobile phone battery mounted on the screen

Fully transparent solar panels: mobile phone battery mounted on the screen

In August 2014, researchers from Michigan State University developed a completely transparent solar concentrator that can turn any window or glass (such as our smartphone screen) into a solar cell. Other "transparent" solar cells reported in the past are different because it is really transparent.

Richard Lunt, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University, said: “The transparent solar panels can be used in a wide range of applications from any kind of mobile device (mobile phone, e-reader, etc.) Etc.) It can be effectively deployed in many tall buildings."

Today, a startup called Ubiquitous Energy brings this technology closer to the market. Essentially, what researchers do is not much related to shrinking components. They are changing the way solar panels absorb light.

From a scientific point of view, a transparent solar panel is contradictory. For solar panels, it is their purpose to absorb sunlight and convert energy into electrons, but if the material is transparent, it means that all the light will pass through this material and it will not be absorbed properly, which is why the previous Transparent solar cells are only partially transparent.

To bypass this display, researchers at Michigan State University used a slightly different technique to collect sunlight. Because it is almost impossible to build a transparent photovoltaic cell, they did not do so. Instead, they used a transparent and luminous solar concentrator, which contains organic salts and absorbs ultraviolet rays that are invisible to the naked eye at specific wavelengths. And infrared.

Next, these light rays become invisible infrared light of another wavelength, and are guided to the edge of the plastic, and conventional photovoltaic solar cells convert them into electrical energy. If you look closely, you will find the black strips on the edge of the plastic.

At present, the efficiency of the prototype developed by the researchers is only 1%, but they believe that this transparent solar panel will achieve 10% energy efficiency when it enters the mass production stage. It should be mentioned that traditional non-transparent light concentrators have the highest energy efficiency of only 7%.

Although it seems that energy efficiency is not high, once it is put into use on a large scale, such as residential and office buildings, it will be a very impressive figure. At present, this technology can not let the smart phone or tablet never say goodbye to the lack of power, but it can still be done by extending the battery life by a few minutes or a few hours.

Richard Lunt said in an interview: "This technology has made many regions see the non-intrusive way to deploy solar energy. In the end, we hope that people will not find out where the solar panels are."

Valves

Valves are found in virtually every industrial process, including water and sewage processing, mining, power generation, processing of oil, gas and petroleum, food manufacturing, chemical and plastic manufacturing and many other fields.

People in developed nations use valves in their daily lives, including plumbing valves, such as taps for tap water, gas control valves on cookers, small valves fitted to washing machines and dishwashers, safety devices fitted to hot water systems, and poppet valves in car engines.

In nature there are valves, for example one-way valves in veins controlling the blood circulation, and heart valves controlling the flow of blood in the chambers of the heart and maintaining the correct pumping action.

Valves may be operated manually, either by a handle, lever, pedal or wheel. Valves may also be automatic, driven by changes in pressure, temperature, or flow. These changes may act upon a diaphragm or a piston which in turn activates the valve, examples of this type of valve found commonly are safety valves fitted to hot water systems or boilers.

More complex control systems using valves requiring automatic control based on an external input (i.e., regulating flow through a pipe to a changing set point) require an actuator. An actuator will stroke the valve depending on its input and set-up, allowing the valve to be positioned accurately, and allowing control over a variety of requirements.

Stop Valves, Ball Cock, Angle Valves, Gate Valves, Check Valves

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