A Curious Tale About Solar Panels
from web site
A Curious Tale About Solar Panels
THE SEPTEMBER 2006 ISSUE OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN was dedicated to checking out the future of energy beyond the carbon period. The editors share a sobering outlook: 'Decades may pass before hydrogen-powered trucks and vehicles relegate gasoline-and diesel-fueled vehicles to antique vehicle shows.' Until that takes place, we'll 'muddle-through' somehow. (Scientific American: 3).
Why does it take so long for some energy technologies to get from the laboratory and commercial applications to the service of customers? Take solar panels.
A high-street electronics chain in London now offers educational solar-power packages for around the ₤ 20 mark. Severe, roof-dwelling photovoltaic panels that will power equipment in your house sell in DIY warehouse stores at around ₤ 2,500. That's a price-tag for the wealthy or very devoted, but a minimum of customers can press their trolleys past the technology.
SOLAR PANELS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY APPEARED on the racks of retail outlets, so you 'd forgive them for impersonating new technology. However they're not. While England was priming itself for what was to become its most popular World Cup, a factor to the July 1966 edition of Wireless World dealt with a copy due date for the magazine. His name was D. Bollen, and he offered a circuit for a solar-powered battery charger.
As he put it: 'The ability of solar batteries to transform sunshine straight into beneficial electrical energy has been well shown in satellite applications. An advantage of the solar battery is that is allows true, ignored operation in locations remote from a power supply and ... promises an outstanding degree of dependability.' (Wireless World: 343).
Over 4 meticulously-illustrated pages, Bollen goes on to supply a blueprint for a circuit that will trickle-charge a battery from a solar battery. Bollen reveals that you can run something that uses one milliamp of present for '2.74 hours' in a 24 hour period. A Good Read leaves us guessing what application he had in mind for this tiny current, however the rig could likewise have actually powered the bulb of a toy torch for a few seconds a day.
Still, the circuit exists and the date is mid-1966. Do not be distracted by Bollen's talk of 'satellite applications'. His circuit is a million miles from rocket-science-- in truth it's the simplest of the bunch in this edition of a magazine that was pitched at everybody in between amateur builder and electronic devices expert.
Somebody with barely any experience could have tossed a demonstration variation of this circuit together in fifteen minutes flat. And all the parts were available from professional providers in London and south-east England.
The noted provider for 'assorted selenium and silicon cells' is International Rectifier. I got in touch with the company to discover how much a comparable solar-cell expense at the time Bollen composed his feature.
A single cell determining about a centimetre by 2 centimetres cost four dollars, right up to 1966. In his function, Bollen describes various combinations in between one cell and four, so the most expensive part of his circuit expense in between four and 16 dollars, or about $25-100 dollars in today's money.
World's first solar-powered vehicle: 1912.
What came back from International Rectifier (IR) showed far more fascinating than price details. It ends up that the company had actually demonstrated the world's very first solar-powered car - a 1912 design of the Baker Electric - as early as 1958. They achieved the stunt by making a high-output solar panel - less than 2 metres long and just over a metre wide - from an entire bank of little solar cells.
Commercial, military and industrial clients went on to buy photovoltaic panels from International Rectifier.
WHY HAS IT TAKEN ALMOST FIFTY YEARS for solar panels to reach our shops?
Southface, a non-profit, sustainable-living organisation based in the USA, explain that solar-cell technology has actually had actually been uselessly competing against the relative fall in price that occurred in the fossil-fuel market in the nineties.
But Southface think that major orders of customer solar battery units in countries such as Japan may lastly signify the start of a period when solar cell production will benefit from economies of scale.
I hope so. In the meantime, it's anybody's guess how long will it consider the consumer-led innovation transformation to knock our energy problems.
© Alistair Siddons, 2006.
Major, roof-dwelling solar panels that will power equipment in your house sell in DIY warehouse stores at around ₤ 2,500. SOLAR PANELS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY APPEARED on the racks of retail outlets, so you 'd forgive them for presenting as new technology. As he put it: 'The ability of solar cells to convert sunshine directly into helpful electrical energy has actually been well shown in satellite applications. Over 4 meticulously-illustrated pages, Bollen goes on to offer a blueprint for a circuit that will trickle-charge a battery from a solar cell. They achieved the stunt by making a high-output solar panel - less than 2 metres long and simply over a metre large - from an entire bank of little solar cells.
THE SEPTEMBER 2006 ISSUE OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN was dedicated to checking out the future of energy beyond the carbon period. The editors share a sobering outlook: 'Decades may pass before hydrogen-powered trucks and vehicles relegate gasoline-and diesel-fueled vehicles to antique vehicle shows.' Until that takes place, we'll 'muddle-through' somehow. (Scientific American: 3).
Why does it take so long for some energy technologies to get from the laboratory and commercial applications to the service of customers? Take solar panels.
A high-street electronics chain in London now offers educational solar-power packages for around the ₤ 20 mark. Severe, roof-dwelling photovoltaic panels that will power equipment in your house sell in DIY warehouse stores at around ₤ 2,500. That's a price-tag for the wealthy or very devoted, but a minimum of customers can press their trolleys past the technology.
SOLAR PANELS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY APPEARED on the racks of retail outlets, so you 'd forgive them for impersonating new technology. However they're not. While England was priming itself for what was to become its most popular World Cup, a factor to the July 1966 edition of Wireless World dealt with a copy due date for the magazine. His name was D. Bollen, and he offered a circuit for a solar-powered battery charger.
As he put it: 'The ability of solar batteries to transform sunshine straight into beneficial electrical energy has been well shown in satellite applications. An advantage of the solar battery is that is allows true, ignored operation in locations remote from a power supply and ... promises an outstanding degree of dependability.' (Wireless World: 343).
Over 4 meticulously-illustrated pages, Bollen goes on to supply a blueprint for a circuit that will trickle-charge a battery from a solar battery. Bollen reveals that you can run something that uses one milliamp of present for '2.74 hours' in a 24 hour period. A Good Read leaves us guessing what application he had in mind for this tiny current, however the rig could likewise have actually powered the bulb of a toy torch for a few seconds a day.
Still, the circuit exists and the date is mid-1966. Do not be distracted by Bollen's talk of 'satellite applications'. His circuit is a million miles from rocket-science-- in truth it's the simplest of the bunch in this edition of a magazine that was pitched at everybody in between amateur builder and electronic devices expert.
Somebody with barely any experience could have tossed a demonstration variation of this circuit together in fifteen minutes flat. And all the parts were available from professional providers in London and south-east England.
The noted provider for 'assorted selenium and silicon cells' is International Rectifier. I got in touch with the company to discover how much a comparable solar-cell expense at the time Bollen composed his feature.
A single cell determining about a centimetre by 2 centimetres cost four dollars, right up to 1966. In his function, Bollen describes various combinations in between one cell and four, so the most expensive part of his circuit expense in between four and 16 dollars, or about $25-100 dollars in today's money.
World's first solar-powered vehicle: 1912.
What came back from International Rectifier (IR) showed far more fascinating than price details. It ends up that the company had actually demonstrated the world's very first solar-powered car - a 1912 design of the Baker Electric - as early as 1958. They achieved the stunt by making a high-output solar panel - less than 2 metres long and just over a metre wide - from an entire bank of little solar cells.
Commercial, military and industrial clients went on to buy photovoltaic panels from International Rectifier.
WHY HAS IT TAKEN ALMOST FIFTY YEARS for solar panels to reach our shops?
Southface, a non-profit, sustainable-living organisation based in the USA, explain that solar-cell technology has actually had actually been uselessly competing against the relative fall in price that occurred in the fossil-fuel market in the nineties.
But Southface think that major orders of customer solar battery units in countries such as Japan may lastly signify the start of a period when solar cell production will benefit from economies of scale.
I hope so. In the meantime, it's anybody's guess how long will it consider the consumer-led innovation transformation to knock our energy problems.
© Alistair Siddons, 2006.
Major, roof-dwelling solar panels that will power equipment in your house sell in DIY warehouse stores at around ₤ 2,500. SOLAR PANELS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY APPEARED on the racks of retail outlets, so you 'd forgive them for presenting as new technology. As he put it: 'The ability of solar cells to convert sunshine directly into helpful electrical energy has actually been well shown in satellite applications. Over 4 meticulously-illustrated pages, Bollen goes on to offer a blueprint for a circuit that will trickle-charge a battery from a solar cell. They achieved the stunt by making a high-output solar panel - less than 2 metres long and simply over a metre large - from an entire bank of little solar cells.
