Biomimicry Solar Panels

The wings of a butterfly have inspired a new type of solar cell that can harvest light twice as efficiently as before and could one day improve our solar panels.

Biomimicry solar panels.

In such a solar plant an array of mirrors redirects the light to a central point where the rays are converted to electricity. Plastic solar panels imitate photosynthesis. Practically the heliotropic solar panel could be useful in developing areas where motor based sun tracking panels are not affordable. Several new cutting edge research project are looking at biomimetic solutions to solar s nagging problems.

By combining photovoltaic technology and piezoelectrics solar ivy s patent pending system continues innovation in the realm of biomimicry and it is a further challenge to our notions of the potential limits of solar power. With today s announcement mit researchers have hit upon a simple inexpensive highly efficient process for storing solar energy. The researchers discovered that a design inspired by. Turns out some researchers at mit have used biomimicry to make a potentially huge breakthrough in developing next gen solar energy systems.

Scientists from mit and rwth aachen looked at the geometric arrangement in sunflowers during their research to reduce the land use of concentrated solar power plants. Solar panels are usually made of. Current sun tracking solar panels involve the use of motors and electronic control systems but we believe a biomimetic heliotropic solar panel can be created with the use of alternative materials and designs. Until now solar power has been a daytime only energy source because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient.

Students drew this concept from research on traditional fluorescent solar concentrators which use luminescent paint to concentrate absorbed uv rays and emit at longer wavelengths.