Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, NovaSolix is focused on the development and production of renewable solar energy. The company is working on technology that converts light waves into electricity through the use of miniature carbon nanotube antennas. This company said its solar antenna technology is over two times more efficient than photovoltaic cells and up to 10 times more cost effective.
NovaSolix has created quartz based chips on which millions of nanometer diameter carbon nanotubes are grown per square inch. These form low impedance antennas coupled to diodes with petahertz cutoff frequencies, the fastest diodes ever built, enough to capture and rectify up to 80% of all sunlight from infrared down to ultraviolet. Replacing the quartz with flexible rolled glass, NovaSolix will create a continuous high volume roll to roll manufacturing process using micron level printing and maskless self-aligning lithography to produce power at a tenth of the cost of existing PV systems.
The NovaSolix Solar Antenna technology is said to convert a much broader spectrum of light waves to electricity than PV through the use of miniature carbon nanotube (CNT) antennas. Prototypes will be available Q4 2017.
The NovaSolix Solar Antenna technology, also known as rectenna, was developed to improve efficiency, cost, weight and deployment of solar technology, thereby expanding the potential applications of solar energy. Georgia Tech studies of rectenna technology cite theoretical efficiencies of two-to-four times better than PV.
Initial applications will include fixed wing aircraft, drones and satellites. In future iterations, the NovaSolix Solar Antenna technology hopes to replace PV as the dominant form of solar power. Larry Cooke, NovaSolix’s Founder and CTO said, “PV is closing in on its theoretical limits while solar antenna technology is at the very beginnings of its potential.”
“NovaSolix’s Solar Antenna technology will provide electricity at a lower cost, on an unsubsidized basis, than any fossil fuel and will be the lowest cost power available,” said Cooke.
The NovaSolix team includes industry veterans with decades of advanced semiconductor and process manufacturing experience. NovaSolix early estimates indicate the associated costs of manufacturing their technology could be 80-90% percent less than PV. “We are well advanced in the process of productizing our technology. It will have a tremendous impact on renewable energy that is so critical to our world,” Cooke stated.
News item from NovaSolix
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