Any home solar panel owner can tell you that cloudy days are no bueno when it comes to solar production, but what if there was a solar technology that could function even without direct sunlight, sounds like a contradiction right.
Well, it turns out a really clever kid came up with an idea: he calls the aria solar panels that can actually do just that. So how do these panels work exactly and what sets them apart from solar panels that we have on the market today, we thought these questions deserve deeper dive today on tupa davinci.
Like so many of history’s great creations, AuREUS’ technology wasn’t developed by some mega tech conglomerate or some mega billionaire.
It came from this guy Carvey Aaron Meg, an electrical engineering student from Mapua University in the Philippines. Meg’s inspiration literally fell from the sky. It was a rainy afternoon. A common occurrence in the tropical Philippines meg was wearing his sunglasses, which had lenses that darkened when exposed to sunlight.
Also very typical, however, on this gloomy overcast afternoon, meg noticed that, even though the sun was obscured by clouds, his lenses were still darkened see. Even though clouds covered the majority of sunlight, there were still tiny light rays that were able to get through.
We would know this as ultraviolet light, see ultraviolet light falls into a wavelength between 10 and 400 nanometers far outside the range of what’s known as visible light. But, as we all know just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there.
One of the main drawbacks of conventional solar panels is that they don’t absorb ultraviolet light, which is why their efficiency drops unless they’re in direct sunlight with no shading. So with this combination of rainfall and transition lenses, an ultraviolet light bulb went off in meg’s head.
He set out to work on developing what he would call the AuREUS solar panel, a groundbreaking new type of solar that can work even on cloudy days. What sets these panels apart is that they use ultraviolet light, which falls outside the range of human eyes.
One major benefit of ultraviolet light is that it can shine through even on a cloudy day. This is one reason why it’s common for people to get sunburns on a cloudy day, not thinking they need sunscreen, because it feels like the sun isn’t shining. AuREUS stands for aurora, renewable energy and uv sequestration? Well, I got ta handle the kid he’s got a future in marketing. You might recognize that first word aurora from the natural occurring phenomena, aurora borealis or the northern lights during naturally occurring aurorae, that’s more than one aurora.
Apparently, electrical charged particles emitted from the sun during solar storms collide with the earth most of these particles simply bounce away, but some are trapped inside the earth’s magnetic field, speeding toward either the northern or southern pole.
Remember the earth is just a big magnet. These high energy particles, usually gamma or uv radiation bash into luminescent atoms and molecules in the atmosphere causing them to heat up a process called excitation they’re, then re-emitted as low energy particles, visible light due to their internal reflectance, which then moves them in a wave pattern.
Throughout the magnetic field, creating the stunning curtaining effects, we know as the northern and southern lights. So what does any of this have to do with solar panels? Well, because the aureus panels capitalize on this exact process, it begins with luminescent particles derived from the planet’s original solar energy producers, fruits and vegetables.
That’S right: meg’s, invention, utilizes, discarded crop waste that has the natural ability to transform uv rays into electrical energy. Meg tested nearly 80 different compounds from local crops before landing on nine, which showed the greatest potential for long-term use.
Next luminescent compounds were combined with a resin and poured over a thin solar film, creating strong, translucent yet easily multiple glass-like panels. The first products looked almost like stained glass, not like your typical photovoltaic panels.
So how exactly do these panels work? Well, just like in naturally occurring auroras, it begins with stray uv light hitting the resin panels, which are packed full of high energy particles. Remember photovoltaic panels.
Can’t use raw uv light, but once the panels absorb the invisible radiation, they re-emit them as low energy particles, aka visible light due to internal reflectance, just like those particles in our atmosphere that visible light then strikes a solar film laced along the panel’s edge, where it Is converted into dc electricity regulating circuits process, the voltage output to enable battery charging storage or direct utilization of electricity may compares the process to how mammals breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
In that this panel takes in ultraviolet light, then sheds out visible light. The prototype panel, a three by two foot lime green translucent panel, was able to generate enough electricity to charge two cell phones per day.
That may not sound like much, but this is only the beginning.
When scaled up meg says these panels could enable entire buildings to generate their own electricity, while solar produced energy has proven a vital role in the fight against climate change.
Some suggest that today’s solar technology may be reaching a bit of a saturation point in terms of efficiency. Aureus panels could be an excellent addition to a solar energy system by stepping into some of the gaps left by current solar technology, because the release panels don’t need direct sunlight to operate, their applications could be limitless sure they could definitely excel in locations with more cloud Cover and less direct sunshine, but more than just adapting to the weather areas panels could find homes in more densely populated urban environments.
Instead of taking up acres of land, oreos angles could be used to create vertical solar farms. Think about the sides and windows of your home or even better the sides of buildings and skyscrapers covered in these ultra violet absorbing panels, because they don’t rely on direct sunlight aureus panels could increase solar harvesting density exponentially best of all the panels.
Utilize crop waste creating much more of a closed loop system that benefits the environment as a whole. Meg even suggests that the material could be used on various surfaces, including cars, walls, airplanes and clothing fabrics.
The hope he says is to encourage consumers to adopt renewable energy solutions with a technology that can better adapt to people’s lives and interest. As of right now, the panels aren’t quite ready to hit the marketplace, but this innovation was enough to win meg the james dyson sustainability award, which came with a handsome 35 000 prize with that money.
Meg hopes to continue to invest in research and development. For this really promising technology, he also hopes to increase manufacturing right now. The current production rate is about 30 panels a month.
Meg hopes to use some of his prize money to create a production, team and facility. This is pretty interesting, clever and ingenious technology, but of course this is years away from being anywhere near commercialization, ready starting with sourcing materials.
It’s not exactly clear how easily you can scale up discarded fruits and vegetable matter to produce these panels, and if you make enough of these, do you have to start throwing crops away that were perfectly good, not really clear, plus the resin panels still need to prove they can withstand the harsh rays of the sun for decades, without yellowing, fading cracking or otherwise falling apart, plus there’s still the very important question of how efficient they can be and how much more they’ll end up costing to manufacture the dream of draping the skyscrapers of tomorrow with something like, this will only make sense if it’s worth the added cost so yeah.
This is super super early and much remains to be answered. But that being said, this story really got me excited. I would love to meet carvies. He seems like an absolutely amazing dude, so carvey, if you’re, watching, give me a call covering these great innovative ideas that just might put a dent in the energy needs of the future is literally the mission statement of this channel this whole.
The future is going to be awesome thing yeah. This is what we’re talking about. So what do you think could aria’s panels be the next major movement in solar technology? What creative applications could you see for these panels? Let us know in the comments below thanks so much for watching if you want to be a rock star supporter of this show, please join us on patreon as a patron or a youtube channel member come join our discord.
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