HyperSolar Inc., a solar cell power output technology company, announced that it has successfully completed a prototype design of its thin solar concentrator. “Our ultimate goal is to develop an inexpensive and thin solar concentrator for use in replacing expensive solar cells in conventional flat solar panels,” said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. “While this initial prototype is designed to provide 300 percent light magnification, we are aiming for at least 400 percent in our final commercial product.” The company anticipates the commercial version of the HyperSolar concentrator will be approximately 1 cm thick and will be applied as the top sheet on flat solar panels. The initial prototype will be a single micro-concentrator module fabricated at a larger size to facilitate testing and validation of its real-life performance. Once the photonic and optical characteristics of the micro-concentrator module are validated and refined, the design can be miniaturized for use in the mass production of the commercial version HyperSolar concentrator. HyperSolar said that when successfully commercialized, a concentrator delivering 400 percent light magnification can reduce the number of solar cells in a solar panel by 75 percent, thereby dramatically reducing the cost per watt of solar electricity. “Unlike current concentrated photovoltaic solutions that require bulky mirrors or lenses and sun tracking mechanisms, the HyperSolar concentrator will be a thin and flat self-tracking solar concentrator that conventional solar manufacturers can use in conventional flat solar panels,” said Young. When a large area of solar energy is collected and concentrated onto a smaller area, the solar power per unit area hitting the solar cell is magnified, and so, the power output of the solar cell is magnified. Traditional silicon solar cells can only handle low magnification levels, while very expensive high efficiency solar cells, such as those made from gallium arsenide, can handle high magnification levels. HyperSolar intends to offer different versions of its technology to address the full range of solar cells and applications. For more information, visit: www.HyperSolar.com
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