PV: Swedish is the most efficient system in the world – TStyle

  Photovoltaics: Swedish is the most efficient system in the world
 

                     

The Swedish company Ripasso has just earned the record for the PV system with the highest percentage of conversion of sunlight into electrical energy . Through an innovative and exciting technology Ripasso has managed to get a conversion rate of 32% , which is currently the world record for conversion of solar energy collection and energy production electricity.

If the results are already impressive, to surprise even more are the technologies used. Ripasso to arrive at such a high rate of conversion has put together some military technology and a engine zero emissions invented in 1816 by Scottish clergyman Robert Stirling.

The Swedish company is currently completing tests at a plant located in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa.

How efficient

The installation consists of two massive discs with a diameter of 12 meters each, It can convert about 32% of sunlight into usable energy directly from the mains. The traditional plants come to convert about 23% of sunlight, but before it can be used from the mains this percentage suffers a cut of an additional 15%. The results obtained from Ripasso are therefore significant.

Independent tests carried out in England confirmed that a single disk Ripasso can generate from 75 to 85 megawatts per hour of electricity per year, enough to support 24 typical houses English. To achieve the same result by burning coal would release about 81 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Jean-Pierre Fourie site manager African, who heads the team for 4 years which is being tested in the desert of Kalahari he told The Guardian:

“We hope to become the biggest competitor for renewable energy in the world”

For the management, production and design of the test, the company has employed staff Ripasso of South African origin.

How it works

The two large disks rotate slowly following the sunlight and constantly adapting their position to capture the maximum amount of light possible. Against the sun behave like two large lenses that convey the solar rays to a small point of collection which in turn share a Stirling engine with zero emissions.

The Stirling engine It was designed by the Reverend Robert Stirling in Edinburgh in 1816 as an alternative to the steam engine. The principle of operation is based on the presence of a gas within a cylinder. The gas suitably heated it expands pushing the piston towards the outside, at the same time the gas is pushed by the piston toward a coldest point. Cooling the gas contracts and the piston returns to its original position resulting in a continuous cycle.

The Stirling engine was not used for commercial purposes for a long time , mainly because of low quality of the materials available at the time of his invention. In 1988 Kokums Swedish company serving the defense started to use it for the construction of submarines.

The prospects and costs

The CEO of Ripasso Gunnar Larsson has put together the experience working for 20 years serving the Swedish defense to build in 2008 the company Ripasso recovering technologies already tested for submarines to develop a system for the production of clean energy.

The project has not gone continued smoothly. Larsson told The Guardian:

“Our biggest challenge in recent years has been to gain acceptance for the technology to lenders, particularly banks.”

Despite this Ripasso was able to obtain private funding and Larsson added

“We are ready to take the next step towards the commercial phase”