The pattern on Blu-ray discs shown to improve solar panel efficiency by 20 percent

Shawn Knight

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recycled blu-ray blu-ray solar panels discs

What do solar panels and Blu-ray discs have in common? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered an unexpected yet useful purpose for old Blu-ray discs. It just so happens that the nanoscopic pits and grooves found on Blu-ray discs – the same ones responsible for that vibrant hue – can have a profound impact on a solar panel’s efficiency.

To come to that conclusion, researchers gathered up several copies of Police Story 3: Super Cop (any Blu-ray will do, these just happened to be on sale at Best Buy at the time) and created stamps by pouring liquid plastic onto the discs.

The stamps were then pressed into the surface of new solar panels to replicate the pits and grooves. After months of experimenting, the team concluded that the panels stamped with the Blu-ray mold increased light absorption by 20 percent.

As evident by the experiments, a solar panel’s surface can play a huge role in how efficient it will ultimately be. Earlier studies have shown that the best surface patters are quasi-random – patterns that aren’t completely random but also not entirely uniform.

The patterns on Blu-ray discs happen to be an excellent fit for solar cells, an unexpected result, the researchers said.

Now, if we can just figure out what to do with all of those old VHS tapes.

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Interesting, 20% gains just by doing...nothing! That's actually amazing! I wonder if this will actually make it to market since now Sony is going to claim that the researchers violated their copyright by making molds of the copyrighted material and then reproducing the copyrighted material. Do we see litigation on the horizon?
 
From the description it sounds like the additional light is the consequence of more surface area (groved vs. flat) and that would be about +20% gain. It would be interesting to determine if these grooved areas are well polished and if not, how much more could be realized by grooved and polished areas. The last three solar projects I ran used the standard, flat panel surface; now I'm curious if a simple grooved, acrylic panel would boost the overall gain .... I think you've given me something great to research .... thanks!
 
I have a gnawing, churning, very sick feeling coming on. It's the one that always warns me that an onslaught of incredibly despicable, stupidly expensive IP lawsuits are about to be launched by the MPAA or RIAA. I can imagine outrageous royalty demands of $X.XX per gigawatt generated, with a secondary per/gig royalty demand that is tiered & variable based upon the movie titles used for master pattern imprinting.

Maybe they could get Solaris on the cheap; I don't think it did much in the way of box office or aftermarket.
 
I have all ways been a fan of solar power. When I get enough money I would like to buy some solar panels for our roof.
 
Now to see a commercial or residential application of the idea. Who knows how much this would actually increase the efficiency of solar panels or cost or lifespan.

Until then, this idea is as good as the discs they supposedly used.
 
Doesn't seem right. Blue color (as most solar cells are unfortunately) reflects the blue sky light and DOESN'T absorb it as energy. Some solar cells are gold and REFLECT the actual sunlight, being gold in color.
 
I have a gnawing, churning, very sick feeling coming on. It's the one that always warns me that an onslaught of incredibly despicable, stupidly expensive IP lawsuits are about to be launched by the MPAA or RIAA. I can imagine outrageous royalty demands of $X.XX per gigawatt generated, with a secondary per/gig royalty demand that is tiered & variable based upon the movie titles used for master pattern imprinting.

Maybe they could get Solaris on the cheap; I don't think it did much in the way of box office or aftermarket.
Simple solution: Record stupid home videos to a blu-ray, use those to create all future stamps, and don't worry about copyright issues.
 
Unintended consequences - If they test it further - I bet they find a dramatic decrease in efficiency as the pits collect dust / dirt faster and then are harder to clean
 
From the description it sounds like the additional light is the consequence of more surface area (groved vs. flat) and that would be about +20% gain. It would be interesting to determine if these grooved areas are well polished and if not, how much more could be realized by grooved and polished areas. The last three solar projects I ran used the standard, flat panel surface; now I'm curious if a simple grooved, acrylic panel would boost the overall gain .... I think you've given me something great to research .... thanks!
I would not be surprised if they learned that is was because it was an effect similar to a Fresnel lens. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens Personally, I would be surprised if just polishing the surface would do much. I would think that flatness and parallelism would be much more important since the combination of both would act to reduce reflection and scattering.
 
Wiyosaya - A very good point and a possible new opportunity at the same time. If it generated heat, some well packed quarter inch tube painted carbon black would generate significant heat to also drive the buildings potable water heating system and serve as supplemental convection heading as well! I've built several of these for heating only; it's surprising just how much heat output you can get. Now I'm curious if you altered the cut, say from a straight zig-zag to more of a curved surface what that effect would be ...... ahhhh, so many questions w/o answers ... it's good to have a hobby! LOL
 
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