[ELECTRON] Solar power.

[Clive Mitchell]

The little strips of blue silicon under the epoxy are actually much
more efficient than the brown glass solar cells, but there is a
weakness with the fragility of the blue silicon strips in the epoxy.
The thermal expansion of the epoxy is different to that of the silicon
and some of the less well manufactured panels actually crack
internally on a hot day.  This is visible as thin white lines across
the blue silicon strips.  (not the silver conductive lines that pick
up the charge).  If the strips do crack their output will effectively
be reduced to the length that is left connected.

The brown cells had an issue with water causing electrolytic corrosion
at the edges of the glass, but I see that some of Poundlands newer
lights have a laser cut track around the perimeter that has probably
been done before the sealing layer was applied.  That should make an
insulated moat round the cell.


On 22 April 2010 10:34, Brian Degger <brian at transitlab.org> wrote:
> if you are lucky you can get the ones with the glass solarcell,
> (rather than the epoxied one) these ones put out a bit more voltage.
> but each of the solar ones are interesting.



-- 
Clive Mitchell.

http://www.bigclive.com