I just viewed an ad for a new type of solar panel ,where by there are gaps in the surface area solar cells . The photons enter and are reflected back up against the underside of the solar cell which can collect and store power thus edging towards doubling the capacity to capture light across the same surface area. The previous solar cells have these small gaps and therefore there is a true increase in sun capture surface potential daily. Neon might be a brand name for this newer product. I thought this was a good development , I had wondered about how to increase the surface area for solar technology for a while, I had thought about layers but not considered light passing through smaller existing gaps. Simple and smart.

While better harvesting techniques are good the bug bear is still storage.
My 300 watt solar array only take 2 hours on a normal day to fill my 300 ah batteries the rest of the day is just wasted.

Peak Warming Man said:

While better harvesting techniques are good the bug bear is still storage.
My 300 watt solar array only take 2 hours on a normal day to fill my 300 ah batteries the rest of the day is just wasted.

Batteries aren’t the only type of storage.

Peak Warming Man said:

While better harvesting techniques are good the bug bear is still storage.
My 300 watt solar array only take 2 hours on a normal day to fill my 300 ah batteries the rest of the day is just wasted.

How many batteries and what voltage do you run at, PWM.

sibeen said:

Peak Warming Man said:

While better harvesting techniques are good the bug bear is still storage.
My 300 watt solar array only take 2 hours on a normal day to fill my 300 ah batteries the rest of the day is just wasted.

How many batteries and what voltage do you run at, PWM.

I suspect two, @ 24V.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

sibeen said:

Peak Warming Man said:

While better harvesting techniques are good the bug bear is still storage.
My 300 watt solar array only take 2 hours on a normal day to fill my 300 ah batteries the rest of the day is just wasted.

How many batteries and what voltage do you run at, PWM.

I suspect two, @ 24V.

I have two 150ah 12 volt batteries in parallel hooked up to a 1000watt inverter.
And a PWM controller on the solar pannels.

And a PWM controller on the solar pannels.

so it’s manual?

Peak Warming Man said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

sibeen said:

How many batteries and what voltage do you run at, PWM.

I suspect two, @ 24V.

I have two 150ah 12 volt batteries in parallel hooked up to a 1000watt inverter.
And a PWM controller on the solar pannels.

Hmm, your batteries are obviously not flat if 300 watts can charge them in two hours.

monkey skipper said:

I just viewed an ad for a new type of solar panel ,where by there are gaps in the surface area solar cells . The photons enter and are reflected back up against the underside of the solar cell which can collect and store power thus edging towards doubling the capacity to capture light across the same surface area.

I can’t see how that makes sense sorry.
If you have, say, a square metre of surface to collect photons from, then if you cover it completely with solar cells then that’s as good as you can get. The solar cells do need a border around the edges, but if you move them out a bit to leave a gap for the sunlight to go through them then you just have fewer solar cells per unit area, no matter if you use the underside or not.
I reckon it’s better to actively cool them, as they can make something like 10% – 15% more power when their surfaces are cooled.

I came up with a half-arsed idea to use water and a stirling engine to pump cool water around solar arrays a while ago, not sure if it’d be worth the trouble though.

Boris said:

And a PWM controller on the solar pannels.

so it’s manual?

casually looks at nails

PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation.

finishes with look of distainful smugness

>2 hours on a normal day to fill my 300 ah batteries

to top them up from a shallow discharge

sibeen said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

I suspect two, @ 24V.

I have two 150ah 12 volt batteries in parallel hooked up to a 1000watt inverter.
And a PWM controller on the solar pannels.

Hmm, your batteries are obviously not flat if 300 watts can charge them in two hours.

No, they are just being topped up after providing some energy for 4 hors of lighting and 1.5 hours of running a water pump.

>your batteries are obviously not flat if 300 watts can charge them in two hours

yes guessing quickly, for example, if they were run down to 30% capacity, require near 15 hours at near peak sunight to restore them…..maybe

wipes forehead

for a minute there I thought PWM bought things with PWM controller labeled on it

Spiny Norman said:

monkey skipper said:

I just viewed an ad for a new type of solar panel ,where by there are gaps in the surface area solar cells . The photons enter and are reflected back up against the underside of the solar cell which can collect and store power thus edging towards doubling the capacity to capture light across the same surface area.

I can’t see how that makes sense sorry.
If you have, say, a square metre of surface to collect photons from, then if you cover it completely with solar cells then that’s as good as you can get. The solar cells do need a border around the edges, but if you move them out a bit to leave a gap for the sunlight to go through them then you just have fewer solar cells per unit area, no matter if you use the underside or not.
I reckon it’s better to actively cool them, as they can make something like 10% – 15% more power when their surfaces are cooled.

I came up with a half-arsed idea to use water and a stirling engine to pump cool water around solar arrays a while ago, not sure if it’d be worth the trouble though.

Solar cell technology currently loses light through these gaps , meaning the solar cell plates don’t cover a surface area entirely, previously the light could pass through these small areas and not be used for any energy capture, where as now the light still beams through these small areas to an under plate and then reflected up against the underside of the existing plate. Therefore there is an improvement from the older in use technology Bill.

monkey skipper
Do you have a link to these PV solar cells/panels, coz I’m not sure what you’re referring too?

There are a number of variations on construction of cells/panels, as well as optical layering of cells that produce energy at different light wavelengths, sliver cells…. etc.

I’d create a screen that removes all frequencies of light that doesn’t contribute to making energy, if just makes the cell hotter than it should be

Could they use that technology that slows light down?

CrazyNeutrino said:

Could they use that technology that slows light down?

no point

in the end you’ll connect all the solar cells around the world and the bright side will power the something, something, something – dark side

having a look back through net search history. I did not originally post a link because I was viewing a supplier of the product’s site

wookiemeister said:

in the end you’ll connect all the solar cells around the world and the bright side will power the something, something, something – dark side

North Korea is still in darkness

CrazyNeutrino said:

wookiemeister said:

in the end you’ll connect all the solar cells around the world and the bright side will power the something, something, something – dark side

North Korea is still in darkness

always wanted to go to North Korea

they need an ideas man

1366380968knowledgebase_02.jpg

http://www.reasystems.com.au/

monkey skipper said:

1366380968knowledgebase_02.jpg

?

neon is showing light reflected off an underplate to the underside of a solar cell covered plate , compared to the right image where the plate is not included and thus no reflective technology used … wastage

Carmen_Sandiego said:

monkey skipper said:

1366380968knowledgebase_02.jpg

?

!http://www.baywa-re-solarsystems.co.uk/downloads/1366380968Knowledgebase_02.JPG

A game of noughts and crosses, I see.

monkey skipper said:

http://www.reasystems.com.au/

Thanks for the link.

hmm, they are using this new LG panel called Neon, not sure exactly how they do this with the light reflection, but it is equivalent to Sunpowers standard 300W panel, same panel dimensions, (cell surface area) and same efficiency.
LG : 18.3% module eff.
Sunpower : 18.4% eff.

Aquila said:

monkey skipper said:

http://www.reasystems.com.au/

Thanks for the link.

hmm, they are using this new LG panel called Neon, not sure exactly how they do this with the light reflection, but it is equivalent to Sunpowers standard 300W panel, same panel dimensions, (cell surface area) and same efficiency.
LG : 18.3% module eff.
Sunpower : 18.4% eff.

That promo of the ‘light absorption design’ on the REA website looks more like a marketing trick, than anything.
Maybe the LG panels and cells are mounted/constructed internally, slightly different to conventional panels, it doesn’t improve on what is already available though, comparing LG’s MonoX Neon data sheets to currently available top range PV suppliers, shows there is no real gain in energy conversion .