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Rotating Cone Shaped Solar Collectors Are Putting Out A Lot More Power Than Their Flat Cousins

V3Solar cone solar generators

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They Clam Up To 20 Times More Power Output Than Flat Panels

All right – this seems to be a fantastic claim, it appears that these guys are on to something here.

They have come up with a very unique way to track the sun for all times of the day and all seasons of the year.

And all the evidence to the higher output claims appears to be true.

Solar cone

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Solar cone 3

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How Does It Work?

This Was taken from the company web site.

The Spin Cell™  is constructed of a conical shaped outer lens concentrator that provides efficient light concentration at a consistent focal width and focal range.  Due to the patent pending conical shape, by design the Spin Cell™ captures the optimum amount of sunlight during daylight hours eliminating the need for solar tracking and increasing electricity output.

The lens concentrators are made up of a series of interlocking rings that connect to each other.  The bubble lenses produce substantial concentration of available light, which effectively sweep over the moving PV.  The lenses can be produced in a range of sizes to suit a variety of market needs reducing costs associated with developing Spin Cells™ with different power outputs.

Extreme heat normally associated with light concentration onto static PV material is avoided by the PV cycling in and out of the concentrated bands of light through the Dynamic Spin™.

The revolutions per minute are precisely timed and automatically adjusted to take in enough sunlight to sustain photovoltaic segment light saturation at peak threshold, and reduce the heat of the PV by rotating it in and out of direct sunlight.  The solar industry has long known that concentrated lensing can dramatically increase electricity production.  However, because the magnification focused on one static point continuously, the intense heat could burn holes in standard PV, or generate such high temperatures that the PV becomes inoperable, an effect similar to holding your hand beneath a magnifying glass.  The Spin Cell™ enjoys the benefits of the concentrated light without the destructive issues of the intense heat.  The problem of strong winds that has impacted flat panels is mitigated due to the low wind sheer from the conical shape of the Spin Cell™.  This is another key advantage over the traditional flat PV panels that require structural reinforcements to protect against the wind.  The Spin Cell™ will use existing PV materials, keeping the price low and availability of key components easily accessible. Additionally, by providing the existing PV supply chain with a new source of revenue, market acceptance is expected to be rapid and enthusiastic.

 

Here is an arrangement Popular Science came up with — I wonder how much this tree of solar cones generates compared to flat panels?

Solar cone 4

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Clean Technica has a very comprehensive article on V3Solar and had this to say.

V3Solar has invented, and is now in the process of commercializing, the first major change to flat panel PV technology in over 50 years – the V3 Spin Cell. For too long, the world believed solar was flat,” V3Solar writes.

“Using specialized lensing and a rotating, conical shape, the Spin Cell can concentrate the sunlight 30X onto one sun mono PV with no heat degradation. This increases the Power Density while lowering the Total Cost of Ownership and Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), which is estimated to be $.08/kWh for the Spin Cell (see spreadsheet).” ~ CleanTechnica article.

Images were taken from this article  at Off Grid World


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7 Responses to “Rotating Cone Shaped Solar Collectors Are Putting Out A Lot More Power Than Their Flat Cousins”

  1. Michael Q. Rudnin

    Jun 29. 2015

    These are beautiful, like functional works of art.

    Reply to this comment
  2. Terrence Santos

    Jun 30. 2015

    Hey can yall make one that’s hand held with a usb port?

    Reply to this comment
  3. Steve Spence

    Jul 03. 2015

    Beautiful works of art, yes. Functional as claimed, I don’t believe it.

    Reply to this comment
  4. BS Sniffer

    Jul 04. 2015

    This is all BS.
    20x the power of flat panel is rubish.
    You can at most harvest 1000W per square meter because that’s the amount of energy from the sun that reaches our planet’s surface.
    Current PV is 15-20% efficient. so you only end up with about 150Watts per square meter.
    If one of these things cast a shadow a square meter in size it would need to harvest 3000Watts to to maintain this claim.
    I will admit they are pretty, but unless there are documented number about the dimensions and power output of these things, this is simply a hoax.

    Reply to this comment
  5. Darren

    Jul 07. 2015

    Mutton Dressed up as Lamb, I doubt they are running at the spec mentioned..
    I guess only time will tell

    Reply to this comment
  6. Burt Ward

    Jul 08. 2015

    The flat ones suffer from having to track the sun’s location. In Vegas, you see these huge panels that are on a gimbal and fully track the sun. At the same stations are also parabolic dishes that concentrate light on a focal point and they also track. These substations inject a considerable amount of cheap energy into Vegas’ grid.

    Reply to this comment

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