Flower Power: Solar Energy  

Oleh:

[s.n]

Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine
Dalam koleksi: The Economist (http://search.proquest.com/) vol. 402 no. 8768 (Jan. 2012), page 79.
Topik: Solar Energy; Photovoltaic Cells; Biomimetics; Power Plants; Research & Development--R&D

Ketersediaan

Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE29.70 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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Solar-power stations take up a lot of room. They need either vast arrays of photovoltaic panels, which convert sunlight directly into electricity, or of mirrors, which direct it towards a boiler, in order to raise steam and drive a generator. The space these arrays occupy could often be used for other purposes. Two researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have now devised a better and more compact way of laying out arrays of mirrors. Slightly to their chagrin, however, and somehow appropriately, they found when they had done the calculations that sunflowers had got there first. According to their report in Solar Energy, Dr Mitsos and Mr Noone found that they could do better. Previous efforts have been directed mainly at stopping the mirrors shading each other, which tends to mean spreading them out. Dr Mitsos and Mr Noone also wanted to save space. In trying to do so they stumbled on an unusual arrangement that had the desired effect. When they showed this layout to a third researcher, Manuel Torrilhon of Aachen University in Germany, he recognized the spiral patterns within it, and this prompted the trio to test a design specifically modeled on nature.

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