PECM Issue 17 2015 | Page 12

DUMMIES GUIDE TO Eco FutureLab FZE Technologies Using both light and heat of solar radiation to produce electricity Eco Futurelab FZE - The Nano Lens Chroma Solar Intensifier (NLCSI) echnicians at Eco FutureLab FZE have developed a technology to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing methods and potentially cheap enough to compete with oil. T Unlike photovoltaic technology currently used in solar panels - which becomes less efficient as the temperature rises the new process excels at higher temperatures. Called “Eco Futurelab FZE - The Nano Lens Chroma Solar Intensifier (NLCSI) “Or NLCSI, the process is able to surpass the efficiency of existing photovoltaic conversion technologies. Unlike photovoltaic technology currently used in solar panels -- which becomes less efficient as the temperature rises -- the new process excels at higher temperatures. “This is really a Innovative breakthrough, a new energy conversion process, not just a new material or a slightly different tweak,” said Ahmet Kianin, CTO and president of Eco FutureLab FZE, who led the research group. “It is actually something fundamentally different about how you can harvest energy.” The materials needed to build a device to make the process work are much better priced and readily available; meaning the power that comes from it will be affordable. Most photovoltaic cells, such as those used in rooftop solar panels, use the semiconducting material silicon to convert the energy from photons of light to electricity. But the cells can only use a 42% Until now, no one had come up with a way to combine thermal and solar cell c onversion technologies. portion of the light spectrum, with the rest 53% Ir + 5% UV just generating heat and not utilised. This heat from unused sunlight and inefficiencies in the cells themselves account for a loss of more than 50 percent of the initial solar energy reaching the cell. NLCSI harvests this wasted energy to make a much more efficient system. The problem has been that high temperatures rapidly decrease the efficiency of conventional Solar Systems, Yet the higher the temperatures go, the better the NLCSI performs. Until now, no one had come up with a way to combine thermal and solar cell conversion technologies. Ahmet Kianin developed NLCSI by Applying his experiences in Photonics technology and looking at other applications in Military technologies, he could by coating a piece of semiconducting material with a thin layer of a new mixture, it would make the material to use both combined light and heat to generate electricity. 24/7 NLCSI is capable of producing energy Day and Night, giving added Value to the customer’s installations. “What we’ve developed is a new physical process that is not based on standard photovoltaic mechanisms, but can give you a photovoltaic-like response at very high temperatures,” Ahmet Kianin said. “In fact, it works better at higher temperatures, the higher the temperature the better.” While most silicon solar cells have been rendered inert by the time the temperature reaches 100 degrees Celsius, the Eco FutureLab FZE device doesn’t hit peak efficiency until it is well over 200 degrees C. “The light comes in and hits our NLCSI device, first we take advantage of both the incident light and the heat that it produces, and then we transfer the heat to our thermal conversion systems, for use in Air Conditioning system or further electricity Generation” Amet Kianin said. “So the NLCSI process has two really big benefits in energy production over normal technology.” Contact details Eco FutureLab FZE London - UK London W11 1LJ Tel.[phone] Fax.[phone] Dubai - UAE PO Box. 123758 Dubai-UAE Tel. [phone] Fax.[phone] email. [email protected]