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A water filled glass sphere? Really? A single typical (300 to 400 watt) solar panel has a surface area of around 2 square meters. A glass sphere with the same c

by todd8 10y ago

A water filled glass sphere? Really? A single typical (300 to 400 watt) solar panel has a surface area of around 2 square meters. A glass sphere with the same cross sectional area is 0.8 meters in radius and would weight over 2130 kg or around 4700 pounds.

dghughes 10y ago
Second last paragraph. >"Rather than glass lenses, the consumer models will rely on water-filled acrylic polymer lenses and will also be able to handle thermal energy generation in addition to solar energy generation."
- alexhawdon 10y ago
  I don't think the weight of the glass is the main problem here. (Though obviously plastic will be lighter and easier to transport.) Where do you mount this contraption? Solar PV is light enough for any roof - otherwise wasted space. You probably have to mount this on the ground unless you want to spend a ton of money reinforcing everything.
  - dghughes 10y ago
    Here is eastern Canada pitched rooves are capable of withstanding about a metre of snow. Wet snow supposedly has a mass of close to a tonne per cubic metre, a cube of pure water is one tonne at 4C. I can't imagine these devices would weigh more than a tonne (1,000 kg) per square metre.
  - mangeletti 10y ago
    I think there is a bit of a communication breakdown here. @todd8 is simply stating that the sphere full of water would be too heavy for this to be a serious proposal. @dghughes is basically replying, "Look, it says so right here. That's their plan." They're not arguing over the material to construct the sphere. It is merely incidental that there was conflicting information in each of their comments.
- etrautmann 10y ago
  The water weight is the real issue here
SNvD7vEJ 10y ago
Exactly. And there are much cheaper and more elegant ways to concentrate light than a massive glass/water-blob: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens Just mount a freakin fresnel lens on the tracking device and you have a system with fractional weight ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE54ctrHBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE54ctrHBY (My guess is that this is originally an art project or maybe a Joke that was misinterpreted by some not-so-technical media) Get your fresnel lenses e.g. here: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fresnel+lens http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fresnel+lens

by todd8 10y ago

dghughes 10y ago

Second last paragraph. >"Rather than glass lenses, the consumer models will rely on water-filled acrylic polymer lenses and will also be able to handle thermal energy generation in addition to solar energy generation."

alexhawdon 10y ago
I don't think the weight of the glass is the main problem here. (Though obviously plastic will be lighter and easier to transport.) Where do you mount this contraption? Solar PV is light enough for any roof - otherwise wasted space. You probably have to mount this on the ground unless you want to spend a ton of money reinforcing everything.
- dghughes 10y ago
  Here is eastern Canada pitched rooves are capable of withstanding about a metre of snow. Wet snow supposedly has a mass of close to a tonne per cubic metre, a cube of pure water is one tonne at 4C. I can't imagine these devices would weigh more than a tonne (1,000 kg) per square metre.
- mangeletti 10y ago
  I think there is a bit of a communication breakdown here. @todd8 is simply stating that the sphere full of water would be too heavy for this to be a serious proposal. @dghughes is basically replying, "Look, it says so right here. That's their plan." They're not arguing over the material to construct the sphere. It is merely incidental that there was conflicting information in each of their comments.
etrautmann 10y ago
The water weight is the real issue here

SNvD7vEJ 10y ago

Exactly. And there are much cheaper and more elegant ways to concentrate light than a massive glass/water-blob: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens Just mount a freakin fresnel lens on the tracking device and you have a system with fractional weight ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE54ctrHBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE54ctrHBY (My guess is that this is originally an art project or maybe a Joke that was misinterpreted by some not-so-technical media) Get your fresnel lenses e.g. here: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fresnel+lens http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fresnel+lens