All-in-One Solar Panels and Solar Thermal

[jpak]

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/solar-panels-and-solar-thermal-all-in-one-5484.html

The sun emits heat and light, but most solar power companies only exploit one or the other.

Some people want to reverse that.

Ewing, N.J.-based Entech Solar – the product of a merger between struggling solar installer WorldWater and Solar Technologies and Entech – has devised a solar unit that contains silicon photovoltaic cells, which can convert sunlight into electricity, as well as a fluid-filled pipe that collects heat from the sun. The collected heat is then used to warm water and displace the need to run a natural gas-burning water heater.

The devices will be set up in arrays ranging from 100 kilowatts to 5 to 10 megawatts in size and sold largely to industrial customers and corporate campuses. The units, which measure which measure three feet wide, 12 feet long and two feet deep, can also be made fairly inexpensively.

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[Kolesar]

1. "The heat that accumulates around photovoltaic panels is also a problem."

PV cells are less efficient at higher temperatures. The water could draw the excess heat away from the cells.