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To: Talisker

Now my question is this: though they claim great efficiency, there was a bit in there about ‘lower power’ photons ultimately hitting the photovoltaic cells... which sounds a lot like a loss of efficiency to me. Never mind that the cells themselves are still gonna be only ~30-40% efficient.

However, if they can redirect light to the edges... along with the associated heat... then there’s also a fair chance of making these windows much more thermally efficient - which would save power along with generating some.


10 posted on 10/13/2016 12:20:31 PM PDT by alancarp (George Orwell was an optimist.)
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To: alancarp

The more blue the light, the more energy. Solar conversion is like a pole vault in that the light has to be of high enough energy to make it over the threshold (band gap). Unlike the sport though, it’s best to just make it over the pole. Anything in excess just produces heating; and, too low produces no electricity at all.

The sunlight is absorbed by a florescent material which emits a less blue single frequency of light into the glass pane. The color (frequency) is matched to a device (photo-voltaic) which can absorb all the light and convert it to electrical energy.


13 posted on 10/13/2016 2:17:36 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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