There is little doubt about IBM’s ability to provide some of the best solutions when it comes to handling your system and your notebooks. But the giants of the computer world are not only revamping the world of information technology, but are also using their know-how in handling systems and peripherals to makes sure that the available solar technology moves ahead in to the next gear with ease. IBM has leveraged their computer-chip cooling know-how into a highly effective solar concentrator design. Bench-scale testing of the design shows an order of magnitude increase in solar power output from a unit cell. The new technology tells us how we can interface existing knowledge from other fields with renewable energy resources to produce better results.
Other designers have worked out CPVs with similar concentrating lenses, typically paired with a tracking device. But IBM stands alone with its unique cooling technology that is not available for any other maker. The technology obviously comes from the fact that IBM has spent countless hours and plenty of money in developing top-notch cooling systems for its own systems. This offers more life and efficiency to the existing technology. The trick lies in IBM’s ability to cool the tiny solar cell. Concentrating the equivalent of 2000 suns on such a small area generates enough heat to melt stainless steel, something the researchers experienced firsthand in their experiments.
But by borrowing innovations from its own R&D in cooling computer chips, the team was able to cool the solar cell from greater than 1600 degrees Celsius to just 85 degrees Celsius. This obviously is a great advantage to the new technology which in future could mean that we would get solar panels with a lot less surface area, but with much greater efficiency. This will surely help a great deal in taking the alternate sources in to the conventional market.
