A group of scientists from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have invented a new solar energy technology which is more efficient and can reduce the use of fossil fuels and mitigate the global warming.
In traditional technology, scientists use semiconductor materials to produce solar cells. The semiconductor material takes in the light immediately after it strikes the cell. Then energy is transferred to the electrons, which are forced to move in a certain direction and result in a current. The metals attached to the solar cell remove the current form the photovoltaic cell. In this way, solar energy is converted to electricity. However, solar cells made from semiconductor materials are very costly. The new technology developed by this team of scientists uses smart materials that make the photovoltaic panels more economical. In addition, this new technology miniaturizes the concentrator solar cell. In this system, the rows of lenses maintain its surface perpendicular to the sunlight and follow the movement of the sun all the day. Although the new solar cell is just as small as a postage stamp, the efficiency of its utilization of the sunlight is 66% larger than the conventional one, which is only 14%. The increase on the efficiency of solar energy also brings down the its cost.
In the US, the large amount of electricity consumption is extremely large and it also leads to large carbon dioxide emission. According to Anna Dyson and Dr. Jensen from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, this high-tech solar panel is a remarkable breakthrough as it allows us to use less fossil fuels, lightening the problem of global warming. It is planed to install this system in the Center for Excellence and Environmental Energy Systems and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
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The original article is retrieved Sep. 25, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0507-bringing_sunlight_inside.htm
2 条评论:
Not bad, being able to cramp all that facts into ~300 words; this is no small feat, well, at least not for me. Main points are retained from the original source, and I find the summary somewhat idiot-proof, which is good. Vast grammatic improvement since the previous one, but still found one typo. Pretty good as a whole!
Everything is clear and systematic to me. Seem like solar energy will be one of the hot topics soon. With regards to grammar, there isn't much error except for two. Well done!
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