Source: CCTV.com

08-22-2007 14:23

Scientists in Israel say they've found an efficient way to mass-produce solar energy. They're replacing standard solar panels with reflective ones that are able to magnify energy from the sun. Pan Deng has the details of this remarkable breakthrough.

Israeli scientists say a breakthrough on solar power can make it a viable energy source.

Professor David Faiman, the head of the National Centre for Solar Energy in Israel's Negev desert, has created a reflector made of mirrors that collects and intensifies the light a thousand times over.

The photovoltaic, or solar, cells in the panels used by Faiman's team are able to handle a much higher intensity of light. This intense light is strong enough to carbonize a person. It is directed at the solar panel, which converts the light into energy with twice the efficiency as ordinary panels.

"The achievement is that we separate out the collection function of a photovoltaic cell to the light conversion to electricity function. When we collect the light, instead of using a huge area of solar cells, we use an equal area of cheap glass mirrors and they are curved in such a way as to concentrate the light onto a very small solar cell, the size of just one cell, and in this way you concentrate the light a thousand times and you can get a thousand times more power out of a small cell," says Prof.David Faiman, Director of Nat'l center for solar energy.

Faiman says a single 10 centimeter square receiver under intensified sunlight can produce as much energy as 10 meters of traditional solar panel in regular sunlight. The costs per watt are comparable to a conventional power plant, but without fuel. Faiman added that the new technology can solve the energy problem of all sunny countries.

Solar energy has traditionally been dismissed as inefficient and expensive. But its proponents say it would be a limitless and environmental-friendly energy source to replace coal, oil and nuclear power.

The reflectors in the new system still require a large surface area to mass produce electricity. But the amount of solar panels needed is minimal, greatly reducing the cost.

Faiman says a solar energy system built on 12 square kilometers in the Negev would produce 1,000 mega watts of electricity or approximately 10 percent of Israel's general electricity needs. A prototype already exists and the system could be ready by the end of 2008.

 

Editor:Chen Ge