Solar Energy|Solar Power|Solar Panel

By: Rick Solare

With the renewed emphasis on renewable energy, new technologies are emerging. Holographic tuning is one such technology and could revolutionize solar cells.

Holographic Tuning

Traditional solar panel systems are not particularly efficient and can be more than a bit of an eyesore. Since the panel systems only convert a small amount of the sunlight that hits them, there really isn't any alternative to placing the bulky beasts on your roof. Or is there?

Holographic tuning, also known as Holographic Planar Concentrator, is a new technology with one goal in mind - cheaper and small solar cell collectors. The technology is based on a unique theory in which solar cells are holographically tuned to attract and focus different spectrums of sunlight on solar cells. The cells are tuned to attract certain spectrums that can be converted without excessive heat production. This allows the cells to make the maximum amount of energy while maintaining a very small size.

Current silicon cell technology is restricted to only a few spectrums and is highly inefficient as it fails to covert up to 85 percent of the sunlight into power. To make things even better, the process is being designed to "tune" the solar light onto both sides of each cell, thus doubling the energy output.

The primary advantage of holographic tuning is it will revolutionize the solar panel as we know it. Instead of large, bulky panels that aren't particularly attractive, holographic tuning panels will look similar to regular bedroom windows, but with five or six horizontal rows of black rectangles, the cells. The prototypes are actually very striking and are a major improvement over current solar panel systems.

Prism Solar Technologies is the leading company in the holographic tuning field. The company is a subsidiary of Direct Global Power, and is pursuing the advancement of the technology through an exclusive rights license from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Prism Solar Technologies intends to begin manufacturing of the new holographic tuning solar panels this year. Keep an eye out for these attractive, efficient solar panels.