Rather than trying to use a regular magnifying glass on a solar panel (which has its drawbacks), a better solution is to use a specially designed concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) panel.
The super focusing properties of magnifying glass have lit the paper on fire. The idea is simple, can we use a magnifying glass to increase our solar production? Yes, we can. The concept of concentrating solar power is an understudy for over a decade now, and scientists are close to making a breakthrough product in the photovoltaic industry.
For one: Magnifying glasses increase heat intensity in a focused area, but the photovoltaic process that makes solar marvelous is based on light, not temperature. High heat is not friendly to most building materials, ultimately including solar panels, although they are designed to function well north of three digits Fahrenheit.
What is concentrated solar power (CSP)?
Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems utilize sunlight to generate electricity using reflecting equipment such as troughs or mirrors. As far as energy storage and efficiency are concerned, CSP is superior since it uses TES technology to store energy.
A recent breakthrough study has led the scientist to unveil the use of smaller-scale CSP to manufacture solar PV panels. The study says the use of CSP can actively contribute to PVs' production capacity by thousand times. CSP-powered solar PV might get into the market sooner rather than later.
Solar PV and CSP are two completely different things. With PV cells composed of semiconductor materials, the photovoltaic (PV) systems convert sunlight directly to energy. Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems utilize sunlight to generate electricity using reflecting equipment such as troughs or mirrors.
How does concentrating solar power work?
So we have only seen concentrating solar power in large thermal power plants. It works on a fundamental principle of focusing the direct sunlight to a receiver that intelligently passes it to some storage. The heat energy in the storage passes on to the thermodynamic cycle to produce electricity.