scruffy days

I recently attended this workshop led by former ITPer, Jeff Feddersen at Eyebeam. He discussed the basics of energy, how humans have manipulated/stored it through history, electricity, solar energy and its current status. Here’s what I learned:

So how far are we from seeing wider usage of solar power in cities, products, etc? At this point in time, solar power is about 8-35% effective, with the higher grade stuff being used by NASA. Solar panels react to certain frequencies of light, which is another reason they’re not so efficient. The cost is also still pretty high, as it’s still labor intensive to produce and requires growing crystals within a very controlled environment; the size needed for the supporting infrastructure is also another factor keeping the cost up.
There are a few different types of panels you can purchase:

• monocrystalline - darker in appearance, more efficient and costly. Example shown in workshop was the SINONAR SC-9225
• multicrystalline or polycrystalline - least efficient, cheapest to make. However, these panels have a more interesting, reflective pattern and Paul commented on its possible appeal for usage in fashion & wearable technology
• thin film - can almost be printed. Instead of grown crystals, these are sprayed on. Currently, these are not very efficient at all, but also have application toward wearable tech

Batteries end up doubling the cost of trying to implement solar energy use. In addition, our limitation in manipulating materials make batteries a bad storage of energy (esp. in comparison to how our bodies store energy).

The last hour or so of the workshop was spent building a “solar insect” (kits came from solarbotics.com & the instructions are featured in Vol. 6 of MAKE magazine). This was a lot of fun, and extremely satisfying to see our bots jitter slightly under the desklamps.

All in all, this was a great workshop and a good intro to the basics of energy and solar power. Since my undergrad studies in product design, I’ve been interested in sustainability, and renewable/recyclable materials. The building of the BEAMbots was like an appetizer and I think most of us were eager to try out more and experiment with other projects. It would be great to have a part 2 and up, or a more fully developed class in this topic.

Additional related links & resources:

• Jeff’s recommended reading: The Bottomless Well
• Schematic for basic solar engine

This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 4:51 pm and is filed under ITP, PhysComp, nueva york, sustainability, sustainable energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.