Los Angeles based cleantech company V3solar has just developed a new photovoltaic system that promises to put a new “spin†on solar technology: the V3 Spin Cell. Unlike traditional PV technology that features large flat solar panels capturing sunlight from one angle, the Spin Cell features a conical design that can capture sunlight at any angle.
As a result, the Spin Cell can produce 20 times more electricity than a flat PV panel, thus making the new design more efficient. Deployed on a large scale, V3solar’s new invention would take up 25% less space than a typical solar farm.
In terms of design, the V3’s Spin Cell actually features two cones combined into one. The inner cone is made up of hundreds of triangular PV cells while the outer cone is a hermetically sealed lens concentrator with a number of interlocking rings and tubular lenses. Set at an angle of 56%, the Spin Cell can capture more angles than flat PV panels, thus eliminating the need for tracking technology to constantly shift the cells.
But another problem with traditional solar panels is that they succumb to overheating due to sunlight being focused on them for extended periods of time. The Spin Cell boasts a spinning inner core that effectively cools down the system and eliminates excessive heat problems. Although one may think that a spinning inner module would use up a sizeable amount of electricity, the impacts are negligible. A bottom layer of magnets ensures the inner core floats and encounters little resistance as it spins.
Are we potentially looking at the new future of the solar farm? Perhaps, depending on the cost of the new device. But at any rate, V3solar Spin Cell provides us with an innovative new way to design PV cells so that they overcome many of the problems presented by PV panels of the past. It is technological innovations like these that pave the way for increased renewable energy integration into the world’s electricity grids.
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Images and video: V3Solar
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