giant glass balls to concentrate solar

Question

giant glass balls to concentrate solar

JayMaechtlen (Industrial)

(OP)

16 Sep 12 03:40

cute

http://www.techhive.com/article/2000362/giant-glas...
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/16/view/23214...;

sounds like snake oil to me- can only gather what impinges on collector - and a water-filled glass ball sounds heavy and not cheap.
comments?

Jay Maechtlen
http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm

DRWeig (Electrical) · Answer 1 · 2012-09-16 09:56:30

"Gathers energy from moonlight"

Sorry, they lost me right there.

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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BigInch (Petroleum) · Answer 2 · 2012-09-16 13:13:27

A lense without water works. No reason I can see to fill them with water and pay for supporting that weight.

"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek

berkshire (Aeronautics) · Answer 3 · 2012-09-16 23:05:22

Reminds me of an old sunlight meter we had in high school. It had a strip of iodine paper wrapped around the edge of the sphere that scorched when the sun shined.This tolds you how much and when the sun shined.
B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor

BigInch (Petroleum) · Answer 4 · 2012-09-17 00:55:17

An excellent reminder that solar cells are rated at 25°C (77°F and can reach temperatures of 70°C (158[&degF]) resulting in reductions of 40% + of the rated power output. Probably why they should be used (only?) under moonlight.

"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 5 · 2012-09-17 02:24:51

Seriously? a fricking Fresnel lens will do about the same, and be about 1000 times lighter; how's that for efficiency? The collection efficiency of a sphere is not particularly good, particularly one which is not even AR coated. And what about all the gaps between the spheres? Not to mention that it's not particularly innovative, given that microlens arrays have already been proposed to to this sort of thing on a more practical scale. And, come on, an architect? Really? He's the one they're doing a feature article on? Puleez...

Moonlight is something like 1 million times dimmer than the sun w.r.t. illuminance on the ground, so not terribly cost effective to go after moon light.

TTFN
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BigInch (Petroleum) · Answer 6 · 2012-09-17 05:11:24

But... but.... but... nobody else is collecting moonlight!

"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek

DRWeig (Electrical) · Answer 7 · 2012-09-17 07:43:01

And let's not forget: the architects will LOVE them.

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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urgross (Mechanical) · Answer 8 · 2012-09-17 09:59:32

Maybe they should try a jar shape instead, sounds more poetical.

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giant glass balls to concentrate solar