A design by a German Architect André Broessel of Rawlemon. The spherical shape diffracts the sunlight (or even moonlight) onto a small ray collecting area where the solar cells are. The steel robotic structure tracks the sunlight . The design claims having a collection efficiency of 35 % better than the conventional dual-axis photovoltaic designs.
I remember doing a course in photovoltaic system design during my grad school years. Besides problem collecting sunlight , the other problem is the photovoltaic cells efficiency(cell conversion efficiency , still low in my opinion) . Photovoltaic system does not have a wild adoption because of the cost (and break-even time) and cell efficiency; and of course , oil companies do not have the incentive to push for such technology.
Solar cell efficiency is affected by :
Reflectance efficiency
Charge Carrier Separation efficiency
Thermodynamic efficiency
Conduction efficiency
I still remember all these terms : Maxiumu Power Point; Fill Factor and Quantum Efficiency , etc....
Maybe one day, the whole scenario becomes that in Gundam OO, then again, human will fight for sunlight instead of oil!
Instead of the sky, the other place we can look for energy is the ground - Geothermal energy; unfortunately, it is still in a low percentage in electricity generation. This technology is mostly employed in areas where tectonic plate boundaries are.
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