13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
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Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#2[deleted]
Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#3The comparison is against a flat row of cells that do not track the sun. I suspect that it will not do better compared to an array of cells that do track the sun.
Basically the tree of cells are arranged in different angles so that as the sun moves some of them will always be receiving optimal sunlight when their normal is parallel with that of the incident light.
Very nice insight, especially for a kid his age. I certainly would not have thought of it.
Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#4Question: Does his tree have nearly double the number of panels? If so, does that have anything to do with him getting more power?
http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/201...
Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#5A couple of points:
1. Like others said this is in comparison to a flat non tracking solar panel, the tree configuration would lose out significantly against a tracking panel.
2. Fairly disingenuous graph on the second page, but then again professionals in business and science do this all the time as well.
3. With the current state of solar technology this patent is useless. But if someone invents solar cells who are so cheap that they cost less than the solar tracking equipment, this could become quite a lucrative patent.
4. I wasn't aware you could patent things which are this directly copied from nature. I was under the impression that you could say patent a mechanism which emulates the motion of a specific fish but not the motion itself, or can you ?
Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#6I wonder if some genetic algorithm style testing of angles and placements could yield even more efficiency?
Seems possible that nature hasn't yet hit optimal design in this area.
Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#7The comparison is against a flat row of cells that do not track the sun. I suspect that it will not do better compared to an array of cells that do track the sun. Basically the tree of cells are arranged in different angles so that as the sun moves some of them will always be receiving optimal sunlight when their normal is parallel with that of the incident light. Very nice insight, especially for a kid his age. I ce…
it makes a lot of sense, nature has been doing it for a lot of time :), I hope that other scientists elsewhere can also confirm that the improvements are so dramatic, I mean, having still/motionless cheap arrays that can perform 20%-50% better than the flat ones are great news!
Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#8Question: Does his tree have nearly double the number of panels? If so, does that have anything to do with him getting more power? http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/201...
Probably not, but I would have to say, THIS is the kind of stuff we should be awarding US patents to...
Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#9Inhabitat credits treehugger.com as its source. Treehugger's article is not breathless about biomimicry, not spread over two pages, and not interrupted by adsense and images.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/08/13-year-old-makes-so...
Edit: The source of treehugger's article is Aidan's own article, which is better still, and addresses briefly some of the issues raised in comments here (e.g., about fixed vs. tracking pv arrays). http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/201...
Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
#10The comparison is against a flat row of cells that do not track the sun. I suspect that it will not do better compared to an array of cells that do track the sun. Basically the tree of cells are arranged in different angles so that as the sun moves some of them will always be receiving optimal sunlight when their normal is parallel with that of the incident light. Very nice insight, especially for a kid his age. I ce…
Now I don't disagree that an array of cells that track the sun would produce better results, but it would be fair to assume that this would cost energy.
Keeping that in mind, do you think it would still provide better results?