Solar Cells and Buckets to Increase Efficiency (IMAGE)

American Physical Society

Solar Cells and Buckets to Increase Efficiency

Caption

Solar cells offer a clean source of energy, but the efficiency of a fixed solar system is limited: The sun moves, but solar cells do not. Beth Parks has devised an astonishingly simple way to overcome this limitation -- a bucket of water. As she will describe at the 2019 APS March Meeting, she developed a frame that holds the solar cell with a bucket suspended on either end. By controlling the leak of water from one of the buckets, the solar cell shifts, tracking the arc of the sun throughout the day.

Credit

Beth Parks

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