You would not believe what we at Green Products found (and no they are not UFOs). Can you imagine a field planted with silver balloons as far as the eye can see, or a hillside covered with silver balls? It’s not Christo’s latest pop-art install, but rather, a solar farm. This is what Cool Earth out of Livermore, California envisions in the very near future. The solar collection concept is not new, but the concentrator is different from anything seen before on any renewable energy product.

The cost to install and maintain the current flat-panel solar cell design is prohibiting its large scale adoption. The glass cover is easily damaged by windstorms, hailstorms or vandalism. When this happens, it leaves the solar array exposed to the elements where they can be damaged. The unique balloon design by Cool Earth eliminates many of these shortcomings.

The silver orbs are made from Mylar, with half the orb covered in a mirror-like material and the other half clear. The material is resistive to the normal outside elements and easily repaired if damaged. Near the top center is the solar cell that converts all the concentrated light to electrical energy. This is truly one of the most unique green products we have seen in the renewable energy sector.

This unique design can concentrate the sunlight so well, it produces 300 to 400 times more power per square inch of solar cells than traditional flat-panel solar systems. By regulating the air pressure inside the balloon, they can focus the concentrated sunlight directly on the photocell. The air regulating system is designed to maintain the proper balloon size as the outside air temperature increases or decreases.

The basic structure of each orb is simple. It has a lightweight circular metal frame with an arm that holds the solar cells near the top of the clear side of the orb. Even though the balloon is eight feet in diameter, the frame is the only rigid component of the basic design. It connects to a point where external hardware is attached for mounting.

One of the areas under consideration is the need to add more peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants. A peaker plant is operational only when demand for electricity is at the greatest, like during the hot summer months. This green product could be used to eliminate rolling brown outages that we have encountered in the past few years.

Some of the more interesting aspects of this solar power station are how simple the design is and how multiples are pulled together to produce a solar power plant. Check it out.

Michael

Tags: air pollution, alternative energy, energy, energy conservation, energy savings, environmental, General, global warming, green planet, renewable energy, solar energy, solar panels, solar power