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Spherical Solar Cells Soak Up Scattered Sunlight
- rini17 6y agoAFAIK large part of price of classical solar cells is attaching the leads (by manual soldering). Tesla solar roof is one ingenious solution to this problem. I suspect it could be a problem with these spheres.
- gpm 6y agoGenuinely ignorant, how does the solar roof reduce the need for manual soldering?
- sandworm101 6y agoConnectors.... thousands of them. Small tiles On flexible structures like roofs have connectivity issues too. Tesla's only party trick is tiles that looks a little like roof shingles. They look less intrusive than flat panels. Imho it is about as useful as painting turbines green so they look like trees.
- charliemil4 6y agoMan, if that’s really the case, the only screwup in the first principle thinking is relying on downstream habits to adapt to solar vs traditional shingles. Working with traditional materials is a completely different building flow than the solar panel, obviously. Smart overall, might be difficult to execute.
- Retric 6y agoThe roof part of Tesla solar roof should presumably last a long time. It also avoids drilling holes in your shingles, combined that could represent a significant competitive advantage. The solar part on the hand is overpriced and may limit how long the roofing lasts. Which means it’s only really competitive if you’re already constructing/replacing the roof and don’t yet have solar. Aka best case is after ~25 years the roof reverts to a normal roof and then goes on to last another 25+ years. The worst case on the other hand is if the roof needs to be replace as soon as the solar panels reach end of life.
- sandworm101 6y ago>> The roof part of Tesla solar roof should presumably last a long time. Ya, but people aren't buying a tesla roof for the roof part. It is the solar part that matters. Roofs move, they swell and shift with the seasons. Over 25 years at least some of those thousands of connectors between solar tiles will have degraded and/or disconnected, leaving entire sections/rows of tiles disconnected. That is why, when you need to make thousands of connections in an electrical project meant to last many years, manual soldering is still the preferred tactic.
- zatel 6y agoI worked in the Tesla factory making solar panels and I can attest that they are more snazzy and lighter then normal panels I've bought for my home (the wait list was to long for Tesla ones) I'm not sure they're much more durable. They can take a hit straight on but if anything comes at the wrong angle the top glass layer shatters. It was so common that we had a designated spot to go dump the ones that would frequently break during the manufacturing process.
- blacksmith_tb 6y agoI have ~8yr old panels manufactured in China, one of them was shattered by what I suspect was a falling bullet (must've been a wild party...). Since the panels are wired in series, that reduced the output of the system by about half (the shattered panel was in the middle). Ironically I couldn't easily replace it, as new panels are higher output, so I would have to replace my inverter. I opted to just bypass the dead panel and have 19 working instead of 20.
- m463 6y ago> They can take a hit straight on but if anything comes at the wrong angle the top glass layer shatters. hopefully the cybertruck and the panels will get better in future revs. :)
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- zestyping 6y agoI want to know if they tested a hemisphere, and how well it did. Intuitively, it seems like the lower half can't be as productive per unit of solar material as the upper half.
- saeranv 6y agoYeah, or even a quarter sphere since the sun only occupies the southern part of the hemisphere (north of equator).
- thelazydogsback 6y agoPresumably you could have the spheres mounted on a reflective surface so you'd still power the upper- and lower- hemi's at the same time (or oblique spheroids or whatever they are when the sun's at an angle)
- jpm_sd 6y agoSolyndra tried something similar (cylindrical cells) and it just wasn't worth the effort. Flat cells are so, so cheap now.
- m463 6y agoI think it's pretty much a hallmark of engineering that the cheapest physical solution will overcome 99% of all clever solutions that cost more than a fraction more. This also goes for conventional solutions vs exotic ones. It's like "better, faster, cheaper - pick cheaper"
- rozab 6y agoAlliterative articles are agreeable and alleviate anguish
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- danans 6y agoMy home's solar installation exhibits the curious behavior of producing its maximum overall single day output when there is summer morning fog which burns off around 9AM. This effect is clearly visible in the production graphs, which show a steeper energy production increase earlier in the day when these conditions are present. My theory is that the fog moves the onset of generation earlier by reflecting low angle morning sunlight from the east down to my solar panels. The 9AM fog burnoff is critical to maximizing production because after that time, the fog begins to inhibit the production of electricity rather than enhance it.
- thdrdt 6y agoIt is also true that heat will add resistance to the electrical installation. So most of the time energy producten is way better when there is sun but it's cool. Energy producten can be much better in spring than in summer for this reason.
- spearo77 6y agoReduced heat might be the most likely explanation – https://www.renvu.com/Learn/How-Temperature-Affects-Solar-Panel-Efficiency https://www.renvu.com/Learn/How-Temperature-Affects-Solar-Pa...
- danans 6y agoI thought so initially too, but during the early hours of the day when the phenomenon occurs, the temperature is nearly always very cool regardless of whether there is fog cover or not - well below the 25°C (77°F) described in that article.
- coder543 6y agoAmbient air temperature is not the same as what a dark surface exposed directly to the sun will be at. The solar panels will be much hotter than the ambient air temperature if they're in direct sunlight.
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- skybrian 6y agoWhy a sphere and not some other shape?