Cool Earth Reshaping Solar Energy with Balloons

Did you know?

Electric power plants produced 17,320 terawatt-hours in 2005. In 2030 the world is projected to need about 33,264 terawatt-hours, nearly double the amount of 2005.

The amount of sunlight that hits the Earth’s surface in one hour is enough to power the entire world for one year.

How many solar power plants would the U.S. need to meet its electric needs?

One solar power plant utilizing Cool Earth’s technology, covering 150 miles by 150 miles, would generate enough power to meet all the electrical needs of the U.S. through 2030.

Livermore, CA-based Cool Earth has unveiled a breakthrough solar energy system that can ultimately produce enough clean energy to satisfy the global energy crisis.

With its patented concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology, this revolutionary breakthrough 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.

How the balloon works

Most of today’s solar energy systems use flat panels or boxes with lenses and require large amounts of heavy, expensive materials. Cool Earth’s inflated solar balloon-shaped concentrators are made of inexpensive and free materials.

The balloons are made of thin plastic film, the type of plastic used for potato chip and pretzel bags, and are 8 feet in diameter. They are equipped with a transparent upper hemisphere and a reflective lower hemisphere. When inflated with air, the concentrator forms a shape that focuses or concentrates sunlight onto a PV cell placed at the focal point. They need fewer cells to produce a lot more electricity and, in fact, a single cell in one of Cool Earth’s concentrator generates about 300 to 400 times the electricity of a cell without a concentrator.

The balloon is strong enough to support a person’s weight, is aerodynamically stable, and can withstand winds of 125 miles per hour.

The concentrators are suspended with a support system based on the principals of tensegrity (tensegrity structures stabilize their shapes by continuous tension rather than by continuous compression.) There’s a minimum amount of material involved and it is the least disruptive to the natural environment compared to any solar power plant.

The upsides

• It requires no government subsidies.
• It uses no rare elements or expensive materials.
• Their design is scalable and their architecture minimizes resources, making use of inexpensive and free materials such as thin plastic film and air.
• Clean energy can be provided at massive scales to meet world’s power demands at competitive prices.

The downsides

• Because these collectors have so few materials, they require active water cooling to keep the units from overheating.
• The balloons can’t be placed on rooftops because the technology was designed to be utility-scale, not residential.
• The plants must be manned to maintain the active flow of air and water among the balloons to ensure maximum power production and cooling (e.g., patching balloons if a leak occurs, etc.).
• Expected high O&M (operations and maintenance) items running. For example, for 10 MW, 70 acres, they expect to have 7 or 8 people working that plant.

Cool Earth believes that solar panels on rooftops are great, but they can’t power industries or deliver enough electric power to many of the densely populated urban centers. This is why they are creating and building their own solar power plants based on their proprietary concentrated-photovoltaic technology. Their plants won’t deliver kilowatts or megawatts, instead they’ll deliver gigawatts of power and have the potential to reshape solar energy by providing clean power at a scale that will make a difference!

The first 1.5 MW utility-connected plant is slated to cover 13 acres near Tracy, California, in 2009.

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Posted on January 27th in Solar Products by Beth.