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conventional cells are able to capture and convert only 10% to 25%
of the sun's energy, Marks' new designs may capture as much as 80%.
--------------------------------------------------------------------> Dinner With Alvin
The genesis of this breakthrough was a dinner conversation that took
place seven years ago between Marks and the then Director of the
Third World Energy Division of the United Nations, Dr. Usmani.
After complaining about a photovoltaic test project in Africa that
had to be abandoned because it was too expensive and inefficient,
Usmani turned to Marks and said something to the effect of `You're
an inventor, can't you invent a better photovoltaic cell.'
Few people would be better equipped to accept such a challenge.
Marks patented his first invention in January 1938. His early work
lead to what the May 1935 issue of "SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN" termed a
1,000 to 1 cost reduction in the fabrication of materials to
polarize light.
--------------------------------------------------------------------> Polaroid Precursor
This cost breakthrough was instrumental in
the subsequent
development of polarized sunglasses and Polaroid film. (In fact,
Marks was an early rival of Dr. Edwin Land, developer of the Land
Camera and founder of the Polaroid Corp.)
In the early 1960s, Marks was science advisor to the Kennedy White
House. Today, he holds a total of 120 patents -- a number of which
have application to solar power generation.
Marks new solar designs -- dubbed LEPCON (Light to Electric Power
Converter) and LUMELOID -- are built on an extention of systems
commonly used to receive microwave transmissions. (On the spectrum
of electromagnetic energy, the difference between microwaves and
visible light is merely that the latter have a higher frequency and
a shorter wavelength.)
Microwaves -- like other radio frequency transmissions -- are best
received using an antenna tuned to the wavelength of the incoming
signal. (When an electromagnetic wave strikes an electrically
conductive material, it induces an alternating current of the same
frequency of the incoming wave.)
In real-world microwave
applications,
the
efficiency of this
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But Dr. Marks has made dramatic -- almost unbelievable -improvements in light technology before. The May 1935 issue of
"SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN" noted Marks created a 1,000-to-1 cost
reduction in the fabrication of materials to polarize light. His
work with Phototherm has also impressed the Electric Power Research
Institute, the electric industry's research thinktank. The EPRI
recently backed Phototherm with $100,000 and has plans to add
another $100,000 soon.
Before you mortgage the house and whip out the checkbook, keep in
mind that Phototherm is a highly risky investment. And I emphasize
the word highly. Even though Dr. Marks is supremely confident his
technologies will work, it has never been tested in commercial
production. Dr. Marks is also eighty-one years old.
Even if his patented design is indeed revolutionary technology,
until Phototherm has enough money to hire a team of highly qualified
research assistants, it may be difficult to carry on his work should
he become ill (his health is excellent). Interest generated from a
recent "BUSINESS WEEK" story on Phototherm may help get the company
adequately financed, but until the cash comes through Dr. Marks must
concentrate on raising money instead of science and building
prototypes.
Consider investing in Phototherm as you would give money to
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when it becomes
feed the nation's
century, we should
Deb predicted last
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Ways of harnessing the sun span the gamut of technology, from the
simple to the futuristic, and all have a part to play.
-------------------------------------------------------------------*** At the simple end, there are already several million solar
stoves, consisting of dish-shaped aluminum reflectors, being
used in India. They have made a dent in the problem of
deforestation -- obtaining fuel for cooking is one of the
principal reasons for cutting trees in developing countries.
*** At the futuristic end, an inventor in Athol has patented a
completely new kind of solar-electric cell that he says could be
far more efficient and far cheaper than the silicon panels now
in use, making solar power practial for everything from
individual homes and farms to huge solar installations for
utilities.
*** And in between, improvements in silicon solar cells promise to
bring down costs enough to make this technology competitive with
other power sources. Prominent among them is the development of
"amorphous silicon," a glass-like material that can be coated
onto a thin plastic sheet to replace the expensive pure silicon
crystals of traditional solar cells.
the lab. Critics, however, point out that microwaves used for
communications are all of the same wavelength, while sunlight is a
mixture of many wavelengths, or colors, of light.
Marks says
consist of
tuned to a
would pick
Some critics also question Marks' optimism about how quickly the
technology could be made practical for manufacturing in commercial
quantities. Marks thinks one version could be in production within
two years, while others think it may be quite a few years off.
No one, however, disputes the principle involved, which is based on
well-established concepts.
Conventional solar cells generate electricity with an array of tiny
transistor-like areas of semiconductor material on a silicon chip,
which absorb energy from light to break electrons loose and send
them toward one terminal of the cell, producing an electric current.
Marks' cells will use an array of even tinier metal strips, which
serve as antennas to pick up energy from light in much the same way
that a radio antenna picks up energy from radio waves.
The current produced in each antenna is intially AC, or alternating
current, unlike the DC (direct current) of conventional cells, but
tiny diodes -- one-way electrical "valves" -- in the gaps between
antennas would convert the current to DC.
Lumeloid, the cheaper but less-durable version of his system, is an
offshoot of a polarizing filter that was Marks' first invention.
His was the first man-made material commercially produced to
polarize, predating Edwin Land's polarizing filters. One version
developed later by Marks is still in production for polarizing
sunglasses and 3-D movie glasses.
Light can be thought of as waves or vibrations, and in ordinary
light these vibrations move every which way. In polarized light, the
vibrations all move in the same direction -- vertically or
horizontally.
The production of the polarizing filters, and of Lumeloid, seems to
have more in common with candy making than with the high-tech,
clean-room process used to make silicon cells.
"You make a syrup," Marks explains, of chemicals called polymers
that form long-chain molecules, suspended in an electrically
conductive material. "You stretch it like taffy, and all the
molecules become parallel." In a simple large-scale way, this
process yields millions of the microscopic chain-like molecules all
lined up in a neat grid that can filter out all the light rays that
vibrate in one direction, allowing those that vibrate in the other
to pass through -- producing polarized light. By simply adding a
different kind of chemical to the recipe -- a "donor- receptor"
molecule -- the polarizing filter becomes a solar generator, Marks
says.
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Dept. of Chemistry
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, 310027
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