Solar panels?

[leofairlight]

oh, this is Off Topic, but I thought that you guys might want to see this.

http://diply.com/trendyjoe/this-glass-s ... arth/37310

[Ric]

Thanks for the link. Pretty cool design & some interesting reading.

I have some concerns regarding the design + the final cost of one of these things.

However, I'll research more into this & will definitely keep my eye on it though as I'm a keen promoter of clean green energy

[FreeER]

looks like a giant specialized magnifying glass with 'advanced' tracking mechanism and a reduced solar panel due to the focusing...if that's it then I'm not certain what's revolutionary about it other than the shape (and scalability?), but then I don't know that much about solar collection techniques....

I have some concerns regarding the design + the final cost of one of these things.

this does seem like it could be an issue...

[Psycho0124]

That huge glass sphere looks super-expensive!
It does look pretty cool though.

My son and I are building (another) panel right now for our little solar setup. The cells arrived a few days ago (super cheap broken/chipped/cracked ones from MLSolar) and we'll probably work on them over the weekend. It makes for great soldering practice.
We piece them back together (repairing the cells that don't test well and trashing the hopeless ones), solder them into chains, lay across a piece of sheet glass and connect them in series, pop a picture frame around them, and back-encapsulate with EasyCast clear epoxy resin. Our other panel is ~2 years old now and still going strong. It charges a little battery pack which runs a 110v inverter. It's not all that powerful but it powers his PCs monitor/speakers/alarm clock and charges our cell phones nicely. I'm hoping the 2nd panel will keep it nice and full during the cloudy parts of the year.
The panel is pretty ugly but I can post some pics of it if anybody wants. We had a lot of fun making it.

[ssilk]

I think that kind of self-made energy will be useable for everyone: some solar cells and small batteries on the roof, which feed the fridge and standby, heating and tv and eventually more stuff - depends on size. But when cooking or more energy is needed, it switches to the network.

The technical side is ready (there are manufactors). It's just the price.