Dubious Concept in Solar Photovoltaics
Here’s an idea that I believe won’t work: a concentrated solar photovoltaic (CPV) collector the size of a satellite TV dish with a solar tracker and a battery, sold to apartment dwellers. In the first place, these people grossly over estimate how much energy will be captured and stored in the course of a day. They also don’t understand that this will be horrifically expensive on a dollars/watt basis, making it extremely tough to sell. On top of that, getting the building owner’s permission to install it won’t be a trivial matter.
My advice: market research. 1) Nail down all these factors, and then take it to a few dozen apartment renters and see if the dogs will eat the dogfood. 2) Don’t get your hopes up.
No details are given as to the size of the proposed dish. It would however have to be large to provide a full electrical supply for a US apartment.
Suppose you wanted to generate 10 kWh per day in the desert – you might get around 7 full load hours a day with the twin axis tracking system. If however you get a dull day you would generate almost nothing.
Assuming 30% efficiency in real world conditions – each m2 would generate around 2.1 kWh so you are looking at a dish of close to 5 m2. THIS IS A LARGE DISH. Imagine what would happen if such a rooftop dish were caught by gale force winds!
I can’t imagine any landlord willing to risk structural damage to the roof by permitting such a dish. (not to mention building codes and planning permission).
As for the use of batteries – why? The nominal capacity of the dish would be relatively low so why not simply use the grid which every US apartment building will be connected to.
One more thing – each dish would cast quite a large shadow so you would be very limited in terms of how many dishes you could put on one apartment so most people probably could not have one as if everyone had one, the dishes would all be shading each other.
They imply that it would be the same size as a satellite TV dish which (approx. 1 m^2), which as you’ve pointed out will generate very little electricity–even on the best days.