Swedish University Pioneers ‘Seasonal’ Solar Panel Technology

Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, has devised new solar panel technology which saves and reuses heat from the summer sun to use once those famously harsh Scandinavian winters set in.

The university hopes that it can provide a commercial solution for efficient green-energy storage across the world. They have described the technology as a completely emission-free, ‘circular’ storage strategy.

How the New Technology Works

Originally, the research team at the university presented a molecule made of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen.

The molecule becomes energy-rich when hit by sunlight, and the resulting liquid substance is stored in a pipe within a concave solar reflector, which tracks the sun’s progress across the sky and focuses the rays onto the pipe. The liquid is warmed, transforming it into its valuable state, before it is stored at room temperature.

Working on the project, chemist and chemical engineer Professor Kasper Moth-Poulsen said:

“The energy in this isomer can now be stored for up to 18 years. When we come to extract the energy and use it, we get a warmth increase which is greater than we dared hope for.

“We have made many crucial advances recently, and today we have an emissions-free energy system which works all year round.”

Battery storage technology is reshaping the solar industry, and developments like this will surely contribute to finding smarter, more energy-efficient ways to generate clean energy in homes and businesses across the world.

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