turbodog

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    • Tue Mar 18th 18:16 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Red Flags at Emcore
      Emcore manamgement may very well require a wake-up call, but the solar PV technology they're developing merits serious consideration. The CPV technology remains in its early stages, so yes, there are risks. Nontheless, here's an FAQ from a potentially larger competitor of theirs, Spectrolab (owned by Boeing):

      www.spectrolab.com/prd...
      View article »
    • Tue Mar 18th 15:35 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Red Flags at Emcore
      Some corrections --

      "The high cost of putting weight into orbit makes Gallium Arsenide technology cost effective in space, but it’s prohibitively expensive on earth – up to 100 times the cost of a polysilicon solar cell."

      Terrestrial concentrating PV is just that -- concentrating. By focusing the sunlight with a concentration factor of 500 (typical for these systems) onto the cell that's 1 cm x 1 cm in area (1 cm^2), the power generated is roughly equivalent to that generated by a silicon cell with an area of 1000 cm^2. 500x of that improvement comes from the concentration of sunlight, and the other factor of two comes from the efficiency that is ~2x that of a good silicon solar cell.

      "It’s also really toxic, and doesn’t work at all under hazy conditions."

      Many things are "toxic", and there's more left unsaid here than is said. Toxicity is intrinsic to today's energy sources (fossil fuels -- airborne mercury pollution from coal chief among them), and to a mush lesser extend wind and solar. In fact, for wind and solar the toxicity issues all fall within the manufacturing phase -- the actual electrical power production produces no pollutants. in this way, solar and wind merit the "clean" energy tag. Toxicity during production is an issue, but an issue that falls well within the bounds of many other industries, such as plastics and other petroleum products, agricultural waste, and the numerous chemicals used to manufacture the many specialty materials that go into electronics such as cell phones, computers, and automobiles.

      As for performance on hazy days, the fraction of sunlight this is indirect (i.e., scattered light) produces very little power for these CPV solar cells -- this is correct. Their biggest advantages come in sunny climates.
      View article »
    • Fri Mar 14th 14:27 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Here Comes the Sun: EMCORE Should Prove Profitable
      Be careful interchanging CSP and CPV -- it's my understanding that CSP (Concentrated Solat Power) refers to solar thermal technologies, and CPV of course refers to Concentrated Photovoltaics. CSP doesn't utilize PV cells at all.
      View article »
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