Morgan Solar improves low-profile concentrator design
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
I’ve written about this Toronto-based solar concentrator company recently, but the Morgan boys have since been busy improving their design and, I must say, it’s pretty cool. Check this MIT Technology Review article on Morgan Solar for an update.
What’s changed, basically, is how the company’s Light-Guide Solar Optic is packaged. The original design had two triangular acrylic optics packaged as a square. Each triangle captured, directed and concentrated light to a single corner where a tiny solar cell was positioned. The new design is a full square that directs light to the centre where it is concentrated in a secondary glass optic. In this secondary optic, concentrated light is bent at a 90-degree angle and hits a small cell bonded to the bottom. The effect is essentially the same, but the new design lowers the quantity of materials, reduces steps in the manufacturing process and, as a result, means lower manufacturing costs. The end result is the lowest-profile solar concentrator I’ve seen that has commercial potential.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca