Collaboration between IBM, Airlight Energy and Swiss Universities

A three-year, $2.4 million (2.25 million CHF) grant from the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI has been awarded to scientists at IBM, Airlight Energy, a supplier of solar power technology; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich, Professorship of Renewable Energy Carriers) and Interstate University of Applied Sciences Buchs NTB (Institute for Micro- and Nanotechnology MNT) to research and develop an economical High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system.

The prototype High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system uses a large parabolic dish, made from a multitude of mirror facets, which is attached to a tracking system that determines the best angle based on the position of the sun.

Once aligned, the sun’s rays reflect off the mirror onto several microchannel-liquid cooled receivers with triple junction photovoltaic chips -- each 1x1 centimeter chip can convert 200-250 watts, on average, over a typical eight hour day in a sunny region. 
Such system can be profitably applied in sunny regions where sustainable energy, drinkable water and cool air are in short supply.

The direct cooling solution with very small pumping power is inspired by the hierarchical branched blood supply system of the human body and has been already tested by IBM scientists in high performance computers, including Aquasar. An initial demonstrator of the multi-chip receiver was developed in a previous collaboration between IBM and the Egypt Nanotechnology Research Center.

“We plan to use triple-junction photovoltaic cells on a microchannel-cooled module which can directly convert more than 30 percent of collected solar radiation into electrical energy, and allow for the efficient recovery of waste heat above 50 percent,” said Dr. Bruno Michel, manager, advanced thermal packaging at IBM Research - Zurich.

“The design of the system is elegantly simple.” said Andrea Pedretti, CTO of Airlight Energy. He adds, “We replace expensive steel and glass with low-cost concrete and simple pressurized metalized foils. The small high-tech components, in particular the microchannel coolers and the molds, can be manufactured in Switzerland, with the remaining construction and assembly done in the region of the installation. This leads to a win-win situation where the system is cost competitive and jobs are created in both regions.”

AIRLIGHT ENERGY is a private Swiss company based in Biasca and founded in 2007 that supplies proprietary technology for large-scale production of electricity using solar power and for energy storage.