Concentrated Solar Power Harvesting Using Self-powered, Wireless, Thin-profile, Lightweight Solar Tiles

2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Serhan M. Ardanuç ◽  
Amit Lal ◽  
Samuel C. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Solar Power ◽  
Form Factors ◽  
Concentrated Solar Power ◽  
Ceramic Tiles ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Power Harvesting ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Self Powered ◽  
Utility Scale

This paper presents a modular and scalable approach to concentrated solar power (CSP) harvesting by using low-profile, light-weight, sun-tracking, millimeter-to-centimeter-scale mirror arrays that can be wirelessly controlled to reflect the incident solar energy to a central receiver. Conventional, utility-scale CSP plants use large-area heliostats, parabolic troughs, or dish collectors that are not only heavy and bulky, but also require significant labor for installation and maintenance infrastructure. Furthermore, form-factors of current heliostats are not compatible with low-profile roof-mountable systems, as seen by the dominance of the conventional Photovoltaic systems for roof-top installations. Solar TILE (STILE) technology to be presented in this work enables concentrated solar power harvesting on a given surface with form factor and weight per unit area comparable to those of ceramic tiles used on walls/floors or that of Photovoltaic modules. Self-powered operation by integrated solar cells, elimination of wiring for power transfer, wireless control, and weather-proof enclosure of moving parts help STILE technology promise lower installation and maintenance costs than PV approaches, while enabling novel beam-redirection applications over large surfaces. As the STILEs are made of mostly plastic, which costs at least an order of magnitude less than solar grade silicon, associated material costs could potentially be much cheaper than silicon PV cells. After a description of the STILE technology and a discussion of mirror scaling, we present a prototype tile with dimensions 33 × 33 × 6.4 cm3 and detail its wireless operation.

CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER (CSP) PLANT PROPOSAL FOR BRAZIL

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Oliveira Helio Marques de ◽  
◽  
Giacaglia Giorgio Eugenio Oscare ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Power ◽  
Concentrated Solar Power

scholarly journals Self-powered multifunctional sensing based on super-elastic fibers by soluble-core thermal drawing

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengxiao Chen ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Qichong Zhang ◽  
Zhixun Wang ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Polymer Fibers ◽  
Elastic Fibers ◽  
Triboelectric Nanogenerator ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Manufacturing Method ◽  
Low Viscosity ◽  
Ion Movements ◽  
Self Powered ◽  
Thermal Drawing ◽  
Viscosity Polymer

AbstractThe well-developed preform-to-fiber thermal drawing technique owns the benefit to maintain the cross-section architecture and obtain an individual micro-scale strand of fiber with the extended length up to thousand meters. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a two-step soluble-core fabrication method by combining such an inherently scalable manufacturing method with simple post-draw processing to explore the low viscosity polymer fibers and the potential of soft fiber electronics. As a result, an ultra-stretchable conductive fiber is achieved, which maintains excellent conductivity even under 1900% strain or 1.5 kg load/impact freefalling from 0.8-m height. Moreover, by combining with triboelectric nanogenerator technique, this fiber acts as a self-powered self-adapting multi-dimensional sensor attached on sports gears to monitor sports performance while bearing sudden impacts. Next, owing to its remarkable waterproof and easy packaging properties, this fiber detector can sense different ion movements in various solutions, revealing the promising applications for large-area undersea detection.

scholarly journals Magneto-optical design of anomalous Nernst thermopile

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Wang ◽  
Asuka Miura ◽  
Rajkumar Modak ◽  
Yukiko K. Takahashi ◽  
Ken-ichi Uchida
Keyword(s):  
Optical Design ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Ferromagnetic Material ◽  
Light Polarization ◽  
Optical Recording ◽  
Induced Voltage ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Circularly Polarized Light ◽  
Out Of Plane ◽  
Order Of Magnitude

AbstractThe introduction of spin caloritronics into thermoelectric conversion has paved a new path for versatile energy harvesting and heat sensing technologies. In particular, thermoelectric generation based on the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) is an appealing approach as it shows considerable potential to realize efficient, large-area, and flexible use of heat energy. To make ANE applications viable, not only the improvement of thermoelectric performance but also the simplification of device structures is essential. Here, we demonstrate the construction of an anomalous Nernst thermopile with a substantially enhanced thermoelectric output and simple structure comprising a single ferromagnetic material. These improvements are achieved by combining the ANE with the magneto-optical recording technique called all-optical helicity-dependent switching of magnetization. Our thermopile consists only of Co/Pt multilayer wires arranged in a zigzag configuration, which simplifies microfabrication processes. When the out-of-plane magnetization of the neighboring wires is reversed alternately by local illumination with circularly polarized light, the ANE-induced voltage in the thermopile shows an order of magnitude enhancement, confirming the concept of a magneto-optically designed anomalous Nernst thermopile. The sign of the enhanced ANE-induced voltage can be controlled reversibly by changing the light polarization. The engineering concept demonstrated here promotes effective utilization of the characteristics of the ANE and will contribute to realizing its thermoelectric applications.

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