Clipped from: Cool Earth Solar: Technology
Cool Earth has developed breakthrough solar technology that can ultimately produce enough clean energy to address the global energy crisis. This patented concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology dramatically reduces the cost and time to develop solar power plants capable of generating massive amounts of clean energy at prices competitive with fossil fuels.
Solar Concentrators Focus the Sun…
Our inflated, balloon-shaped concentrators are key to Cool Earth's innovative design. Each 8-foot-diameter concentrator is made of plastic film—the same kind of plastic film used to bag potato chips, pretzels, and so on—with a transparent upper hemisphere and a reflective lower hemisphere. When inflated with air, the concentrator naturally forms a shape that focuses or concentrates sunlight onto a PV cell placed at the focal point. This means we need fewer cells to produce a lot more electricity. In fact, a single cell in our concentrator generates about 300 to 400 times the electricity of a cell without a concentrator.
Clipped from: YouTube - Inflatable Solar Collectors
Inflatable Solar Collectors
Clipped from: Cool Earth Solar generates power with 'solar balloons' | Green Tech - CNET News
Cool Earth Solar generates power with 'solar balloons'
[...] It plans to manufacture plastic balloons, which will be suspended on metal and wire structures. These round balloons reflect light onto a solar cell to generate electricity.
Because its design uses relatively cheap and readily available components, these solar concentrators can generate electricity at a cost comparable to that of natural-gas plants. The inflated solar collectors can withstand 100 mile-per-hour wind.
Clipped from: Cool Earth Solar: Technology
A Support System Holds It All in Place…
The concentrators are suspended with our patented support system, which is based on the architectural principles of tensegrity. (Tensegrity structures stabilize their shapes by continuous tension or "tensional integrity" rather than by continuous compression.) The resulting system of wood posts and steel cables uses a minimum amount of material, has a small footprint, and causes the least disruption to the natural environment of any solar power plant.
What exactly is tensegrity?
Tensegrity is an architectural concept first defined by R. Buckminster Fuller. For more information, see this page from the Buckminster Fuller site or view this YouTube video on building step-by-step tensegrities.
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Cool Earth Solar: Technology
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