A Curious Tale About Solar Panels
A Curious Tale About Solar Panels
THE SEPTEMBER 2006 ISSUE OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN was dedicated to exploring the future of energy beyond the carbon era. (Scientific American: 3).
Why does it take so long for some energy innovations to get from the lab and commercial applications to the service of customers? Take solar panels, for instance.
A high-street electronics chain in London now offers educational solar-power sets for around the ₤ 20 mark. Serious, roof-dwelling photovoltaic panels that will power devices in your home sell in DIY superstores at around ₤ 2,500. That's a price-tag for the rich or very devoted, however at least customers can press their trolleys past the innovation.
SOLAR PANELS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY APPEARED on the racks of retail outlets, so you 'd forgive them for posing as brand-new innovation. They're not. While England was priming itself for what was to become its most popular World Cup, a factor to the July 1966 edition of Wireless World faced a copy deadline for the magazine. His name was D. Bollen, and he provided a circuit for a solar-powered battery charger.
As he put it: 'The ability of solar batteries to transform sunshine straight into useful electrical energy has been well shown in satellite applications. A benefit of the solar battery is that is allows real, ignored operation in locations remote from a power supply and ... assures an impressive degree of dependability.' (Wireless World: 343).
Over four meticulously-illustrated pages, Bollen goes on to supply a plan for a circuit that will trickle-charge a battery from a solar cell. Bollen reveals that you can run something that utilizes one milliamp of current for '2.74 hours' in a 24 hour duration. Check Here For More leaves us thinking what application he had in mind for this tiny existing, but the rig might likewise have powered the bulb of a toy torch for a couple of seconds a day.
Still, the circuit exists and the date is mid-1966. Do not be sidetracked by Bollen's talk of 'satellite applications'. His circuit is a million miles from rocket-science-- in truth it's the easiest of the bunch in this edition of a magazine that was pitched at everybody between newbie fabricator and electronic devices professional.
Somebody with barely any experience might have thrown a demonstration variation of this circuit together in fifteen minutes flat. And all the parts were offered from professional suppliers in London and south-east England.
The listed supplier for 'assorted selenium and silicon cells' is International Rectifier. I contacted the business to discover just how much a similar solar-cell expense at the time Bollen composed his function.
A single cell measuring about a centimetre by two centimetres cost four dollars, right as much as 1966. In his feature, Bollen explains various combinations in between one cell and four, so the most pricey part of his circuit cost in between four and 16 dollars, or about $25-100 dollars in today's money.
World's first solar-powered cars and truck: 1912.
What came back from International Rectifier (IR) proved far more fascinating than price details. It ends up that the company had actually demonstrated the world's first solar-powered vehicle - a 1912 model of the Baker Electric - as early as 1958. They achieved the stunt by making a high-output photovoltaic panel - less than two metres long and simply over a metre broad - from a whole bank of little solar cells.
Commercial, military and commercial consumers went on to buy photovoltaic panels from International Rectifier.
WHY HAS IT TAKEN ALMOST FIFTY YEARS for solar panels to reach our stores?
Southface, a non-profit, sustainable-living organisation based in the USA, mention that solar-cell innovation has actually had actually been uselessly competing versus the relative fall in price that happened in the fossil-fuel market in the nineties.
However Southface believe that significant orders of consumer solar cell units in nations such as Japan may finally signify the start of an era when solar battery production will gain from economies of scale.
I hope so. In the meantime, it's anyone's guess the length of time will it consider the consumer-led innovation revolution to swat our energy problems.
© Alistair Siddons, 2006.
Serious, roof-dwelling solar panels that will power equipment in your house sell in DIY warehouse stores at around ₤ 2,500. SOLAR PANELS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY APPEARED on the racks of retail outlets, so you 'd forgive them for presenting as brand-new innovation. As he put it: 'The ability of solar cells to convert sunshine straight into helpful electrical energy has been well shown in satellite applications. Over 4 meticulously-illustrated pages, Bollen goes on to provide a plan for a circuit that will trickle-charge a battery from a solar cell. They achieved the stunt by making a high-output solar panel - less than two metres long and just over a metre large - from an entire bank of little solar cells.