Zenit Solar Company launched the first solar energy farm used for the combined production of electrical energy and thermal energy (hot water) using concentrated photovoltaic technology
Zenit Solar, an Israeli company established in 2006, has developed a revolutionary system on a global scale for the combined production of electrical energy and thermal energy (hot water) using concentrated photovoltaic technology (Concentrated Photovoltaic - CPV), and is currently starting mass production of the system.
The technology is the result of many years of development by a team of researchers led by Prof. David Peyman, director of the National Solar Energy Center at the Yaakov Blaustein Desert Research Institute of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The university contributed a lot to the transformation of the system from a scientific development to an actual reality.
The German research institute Fraunhofer - ISE, one of the well-known and leading research institutes in the world in general, and in the field of solar energy in particular, is also a key partner of the company. A team of researchers led by Dr. Andreas Bett (Andreas Bett, deputy head of the institute and head of the solar cell department, actively and continuously accompanies and assists the company in the complex development process. Recently, the institute reported breaking the world record for solar cell efficiency for electricity generation - 41.1% (!)
"We are proud to be partners in Israel's positioning as a global center for the development and export of advanced technologies in general in the field of solar energy in particular. We are particularly proud of our contribution to the preservation of the environment and ensuring its stability for future generations," said the president of Ben-Gurion University, Prof. Rivka Karmi, at the ceremony. Prof. Karmi emphasized that this is a groundbreaking system in the field of solar energy.
The founder and CEO of Zenit Solar, Roi Segev, emphasizes that the innovation of the technology is embodied in its ability to utilize over 70% of the sun's energy (both electrical and thermal). This, compared to photovoltaic technologies, which can only use about 12% of the sun's energy, and thermo-solar technologies, which can only use about 20% of the sun's energy.
"The power of the system lies in its economic viability - the energy production prices are competitive with the production prices in the traditional systems without any need for a government subsidy alongside the extremely cheap production cost of the system due to the simplicity of its components," says Segev.
The solar farm, the first of its kind, includes 32 solar panels, which will provide about 150 megawatts of electricity and about 300 megawatts of useful thermal energy each year, and will replace about 40,000 thousand liters of fuel per year. The farm is spread over an area of only about two dunams (a very small area compared to the extensive areas required for solar systems with similar power supplies, which currently exist on the market). The solar farm will provide the full water consumption for over 50% of the kibbutz's residents.
System Benefits
- For an energy output of 1 megawatt, the system needs only about 5 dunams.
- Zenit Solar's CPV technology separates the process of energy collection and conversion when the collection process is done with the cheapest means of plastic, iron and mirrors, and the conversion is done on an area 1:1000 in size relative to photovoltaic panels.
- The Zenith Solar system can be upgraded during its lifetime due to the fact that the collection and conversion system are separated.
- Zenit's CPV technology has an efficiency of 70% solar energy - 21% electrical energy and 49% thermal energy.
Link to the video on the subject (in English)
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Too many numbers in the article don't add up, Viva la calculator!
Now - for some reason - it doesn't work for me either.
They probably changed something.
In any case, it is easy to find the content by typing the name of the company "Zenit Solar"
Michael, are you sure this is the address?
She doesn't work for me.
interesting:
You are waiting for 2010
http://cmsprod.bgu.ac.il/engn/News/SolarNews2009.htm
How exactly do I get something like this for my home?
It would also be nice if they sold it for home use
Birch:
These are indeed big numbers but you should already be used to them.
Try for a moment to remember how much memory you have on your computer - these are the same orders of magnitude. You probably have a hundred times more on the disk (it's true that here we are talking about storage volume and not energy, but the numbers are the same numbers)
Wait Michael, if a kilowatt is a thousand watts, a megawatt is a thousand kilowatts, then a kilo is 1000, a mega is a million, and if a gigawatt is a thousand megawatts, then a giga is a billion... Oh.
Walla? How many gigawatts does the country use approximately per day?
Geniuses
The Jews always do the really significant things
I can't believe what geniuses, what a breakthrough
Wow, that's cool
Listen, Channel 2 has the program "What's going on" where the topics to talk about are chosen according to the number of talkbacks (reactions). Today I saw that in the index of talkbacks, an article that had about 500 talkbacks came in fifth place, so if we want Channel 2 to delve deeper into the subject, we only need to write a lot of comments (that are not related to each other, as if we are different people).
So far 11 people have responded, all it takes is for each person to respond about 45, 46 times as if they were several different people. It's not that much.
You just have to write things like Nadav wrote, or the opposite.
Success for all of us
A gigawatt is one thousand megawatts
There is really a problem of units here because a watt is a unit of energy generation power (ie - how much energy is produced in a unit of time) and therefore it is not appropriate to talk about the production of such and such a watt per year.
How much is one gigawatt?
There is some deception and bias of the data here.
It is customary to specify the power as kWp and not how much the system produces per year.
The installation itself which was done in the Yavneh group a few weeks ago
Ami:
Regarding the first question - you probably meant to write that five dunams can produce one gigawatt and not one megawatt.
Regarding the second question - I assume you meant to ask about 58.9 percent and not about 51%.
If you notice - part of the 41.1% used is thermal energy stored in the water (ie - exactly the same hot water you suggested).
It turns out that in the meantime they simply can't use it anymore - some of the energy is returned as light and some heats the surrounding air.
Dew
The efficiency they were able to reach is under very specific conditions, for example, light needs to reach the cell with an intensity of about 500 "suns", which of course causes the cell to heat up tremendously, which makes it possible to use thermal energy as well.
In any case, this system has been built for a long time, while the cell with the maximum utilization is relatively new, and it will probably take some time before they start producing it in sufficient quantity, in any case, as hinted, the advantage of the system is that as soon as you find a cell technology with a higher utilization, everything Panels need to be replaced. All the rest of the system is the same, and as mentioned, the panels are only small at the points where the light is directed, unlike the huge and horribly expensive home panels.
1) The first solar farm of its kind, includes 32 solar panels, which will provide approximately 150 megawatts of electricity and approximately 300 megawatts of useful thermal energy each year
2) The farm spreads over an area of only about two dunams
3) For an energy output of 1 megawatt, the system needs only about 5 dunams
How do these fit together?
Another question is - where does 51% of the unharvested heat get lost and why can't the system be connected to heat water?
I couldn't stop smiling, like Shipra won Big Brother.
Does anyone know perhaps how many megawatts the Orot Rabin power station or in general the Fusal power stations provide each year?
I once saw a program on National Geographic about a solar farm in Nevada, USA.
I'm waiting for National Geographic to come here, more than that, I'm registered as a member on their website, I'll direct them to this article.
They are finally establishing a solar energy farm in Israel!!!! But as always.. it takes time for things to reach Israel..
Wonderful news! A pleasure to read 🙂
The link to the video is missing
Complete confusion in everything related to space and energy.
Tal, there are several ways to take advantage of different areas of solar radiation, I imagine that turning heat into electricity is a bit more complex than a simple cell that generates voltage.
If they managed to reach an efficiency of 41.1% in electricity production, why do they use the system in cells with an efficiency of 21%?