Solar Energy Without Solar Cells?

dacruick

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-...-magnetic.html

Drakkith

Thats pretty interesting. Hopefully they find a way to do this with a lower intensity.

dacruick

If its true, I think it has tremendous potential.

Drakkith

Sure. Looks like it could greatly reduce the cost of generate solar power. We'll have to wait and see though.

thopsy

Can it be made work at lower intensities? The maximum possible concentration ratio for sunlight is < 50 000 times (for a cell immersed in a medium of refractive index = 1). For a direct normal irradiance of 1000 W/m^2, this gives a maximum solar flux on the cell of 50 million W/m^2. According to the article such a device would require 10 million W/cm^2 = 100 billion W/m^2. This is 2000 times higher than the theoretical limit, so I hope they can find some materials requiring a lower intensity.