This Simple Adjustment Can Increase Solar Panels' Efficiency By 36%

When she was in Uganda, Beth Parks, a professor at Colgate University, found out that the main source of power for people of sub-Saharan Africa, the solar panels are unable to absorb light when the sun moves.

A typical solar panel in its maximum capacity can only convert 29% of the light so according to Beth Parks, the longer it remains exposed to the sun the better.

Not much was needed to get her experiments going, just a couple of rocks and some water. After some time working and a test that lasted 20 days, Parks came up with a solar cell that moves as the sun does. It is 36% more efficient than an unmodified model, which can translate to hundreds of watts more.

In a country like the US, the excess power does not make much of a difference but in Uganda, where 0.04kWh is enough to sustain a whole household, this creation promises great impact. We are talking about electricity to power light at night or even cell phones.

Parks and some students at Mbarara University of Science and Technology added a frame made out of easy-to-find material and a pivot to a typical solar collector. The team found a way to leak water out of the bucket on the east side so that the rocks on the west slowly weight that side down, turning the panel toward the sun.

This idea opens a wealth of opportunity to build more compact and affordable solar panels that people of Uganda can bring inside at night. Parks’s design is 10% cheaper than a traditional panel and her students are working on a frame that costs about $6.

Parks is no longer in Uganda but if her idea can spread to other parts of the country, this could mean a business opportunity for people of this country.