Solar start-up Rawlemon’s Andre Broessel, a German architect, has created a spherical sun-tracking solar energy generator to revolutionise renewable energy and solar power on Earth. The Rawlemon design uses a spherical lens to concentrate both sunlight and moonlight up to 10,000 times on a small photovoltaic panel and combines this with a dual-axis pivot that tracks the movement of the sun. By concentrating the sun’s light in one area, the Rawlemon design reduces the solar cell surface required to just 1% of that required by a traditional panel making its solar harvesting capabilities 35% more efficient than conventional dual-axis photovoltaic designs. Additionally, poor weather would not impact the device, because of a built-in weather tracking system.
Rawlemon has brought a range of devices to market. The 10-cm (3.9-in) Beta.ey S phone charger is compatible with any phone that uses a USB 2.0 charging port and has a battery storage capacity of 27.5 Whr. The other devices include Beta.ey S Special Edition ($489) and a Beta.ey XL ($999) designed for charging tablets.
The 100-cm (39.4-in) Beta.ray 1.0 generate up to 1.1 kWh a day enough to run a laptop for about two days. It has a 1.8 kWh battery. The 180-cm (70.1-in) Beta.ray 1.8 generate up to 3.4 kWh a day enough to run a laptop for almost a week. It has a 5.4 kWh battery. Both the Beta.ray 1.0 and 1.8 feature water-filled acrylic-polymer lenses and generate thermal energy as well as solar. And there’s a $6,000 package too which includes the full-sized Beta.ray built for the outdoors.
He tried to raise $120,000 on his Indiegogo campaign for further testing, and for patent applications and raised $230,971 by March 10, 2014.
So, what happens to anything that comes between the concentrated light and the photovoltiac panel? Example : A human or animal body part. Would safeguards be put in place so the device could not be tampered with to be used as a weapon??
Lol.
That something would have to be inside the ball. 😀
Also, a weapon? A big plexiglass ball? Would be more effective to smack that over your head.
If you must find some argument for burning fossil fuels instead, try harder.
the collector is attached right to the glass bulb. how would anything get ‘between’ literally nothing
Already exists something very similar. It’s a patent of an italian company, the SOLERGY.
http://www.solergyinc.com/mobile/index.html
I’m not sure if I’m willing to buy a charger for 500-1000 bucks, especially if it’s a damn fkin meter in diameter. And where’s USB 3.0?
So much future in solar, wind and wave technologies! We need to integrate all the technologies with a common, unified input into the electrical grid, foiling backwash and promoting maximum efficiency! This CAN be done and every person can harvest in one way or another these technologies, contributing to the common good and globalizing clean energies.