With the renewed emphasis on renewable energy, new technologies
are emerging. Holographic tuning is one such technology and
could revolutionize solar cells.
Holographic Tuning
Traditional solar panel systems are not particularly efficient
and can be more than a bit of an eyesore. Since the panel
systems only convert a small amount of the sunlight that hits
them, there really isn't any alternative to placing the bulky
beasts on your roof. Or is there?
Holographic tuning, also known as Holographic Planar
Concentrator, is a new technology with one goal in mind -
cheaper and small solar cell collectors. The technology is based
on a unique theory in which solar cells are holographically
tuned to attract and focus different spectrums of sunlight on
solar cells. The cells are tuned to attract certain spectrums
that can be converted without excessive heat production. This
allows the cells to make the maximum amount of energy while
maintaining a very small size.
Current silicon cell technology is restricted to only a few
spectrums and is highly inefficient as it fails to covert up to
85 percent of the sunlight into power. To make things even
better, the process is being designed to "tune" the solar light
onto both sides of each cell, thus doubling the energy output.
The primary advantage of holographic tuning is it will
revolutionize the solar panel as we know it. Instead of large,
bulky panels that aren't particularly attractive, holographic
tuning panels will look similar to regular bedroom windows, but
with five or six horizontal rows of black rectangles, the cells.
The prototypes are actually very striking and are a major
improvement over current solar panel systems.
Prism Solar Technologies is the leading company in the
holographic tuning field. The company is a subsidiary of Direct
Global Power, and is pursuing the advancement of the technology
through an exclusive rights license from the Illinois Institute
of Technology.
Prism Solar Technologies intends to begin manufacturing of the
new holographic tuning solar panels this year. Keep an eye out
for these attractive, efficient solar panels.
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