Technology Spotlight / A Volt From The Blue : Solar Carport Gets a Charge From New Photovoltaic Cell
Employees of the South Coast Air Quality Management District will get more of a charge out of driving to work this summer-if they happen to drive an electric car.
Using a promising new solar-cell technology developed by Southern California Edison Co. and Texas Instruments, Irvine-based Fluor Corp. is working with Edison to build a “solar carport” at the AQMD’s headquarters in Diamond Bar.
Like conventional solar cells, the new Texas Instruments cells convert sunlight directly into electricity. However, the standard way of making solar cells uses thin slices of extremely pure silicon that costs as much as $35 per pound, while the TI cells use tiny spheres of less-pure silicon, costing as little as $1 per pound.
It will cost about $625,000 to build AQMD’s solar carport, a prototype for future commercial installations at shopping malls and employee parking lots. That figure includes labor and materials, software and a onetime design cost.
Edison planners are also looking ahead to residential installations. A 5-by-20-foot strip of solar cells on a south-facing roof can provide roughly one-third of the average annual electricity needs of a Southern California home. With the new solar cells, the cost of such a system could fall between $1,5000 and $3,000, in contrast to $8,000 to $12,000 using today’s technology.
How the Solar Carport Will Work 1) Sunlight striking the carport’s roof generates electricity. 2) Current is channeled through a network of contact wires to an inverter, which turns DC power into AC. 3) Electric cars plug into the inverter to recharge their batteries. 4) Surplus electricity is siphoned off for use in nearby buildings. Source: Southern California Edison Co.
