New Ways to Catch Rays
Highly concentrated sunlight
This is one of three High
Concentration Photovoltaic arrays operating at Nevada's Clark Power
Station. These giant panels, produced by Amonix Corp., use optical
lenses to concentrate an intense amount of sunlight onto solar
cells. Since each lens channels "250 suns" worth of light to each
square in the panel, the same amount of electricity can be produced
using a fraction of the silicon material typically required. Each
array generates 25 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power about a
dozen homes.