Ben-Gurion University: Solar panel ‘that can compete with conventional energy’

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A British-born physicist has developed a solar panel he claims is a thousand times as powerful as conventional solar technology.

Working at the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, solar energy expert David Feiman has designed a reflector that can collect and convert sunlight with twice the efficiency of ordinary silicon-based panels.

Although photovoltaic technology is thought by some to be too expensive, Feiman’s addition of mirrors has enabled a cost-effective prototype to be produced which can handle the intensified light and convert it into energy.

Feiman is currently in talks with a solar company to commercialise the technology for domestic applications.

“After thirty years of research on solar energy…I can say this year that I know how to manufacture solar energy that will compete with conventional energy,” said Feiman.

“We constructed a large, parabola-shaped glass plate. It not only absorbs the light, it also focuses it on one point, a thousand times more than regular sunlight. No one has ever produced so much electricity from a solar cell at this strength,” he claims.