On Sat, Jul 19, 2014 at 1:33 PM, Orionworks - Steven Vincent Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > Got a response for Dr. Mills: > > > > The cell has a window to protect the PV, and the PV is warranted for 25 > years at the rated power. We are working directly with six manufactures. > They see this as an enormous market opportunity. These concerns are > nonexistent
:-) I wish I had his confidence. One issue is the term "at rated power". A good deal is known about the effect of concentrated light on photovoltaics (cpv). Up to 300 suns have been demonstrated commercially; but, these systems must have huge heat sinks to remove heat from the pv cells. Heat is one cause of rapid degradation of the p/n junction. A pv cell operates like a reverse LED. The life of the LED depends on how long you can maintain the separation of dopants in the junction. Rapid migration occurs at high temperatures resulting in a reduction of the amount of light produced by the LED. Pulsed power will actually cause an inertial effect on the dopants increasing the degradtion rate. Little is known about this effect in pv cells; but, a great deal has been learned in glass based lasers thanks to the NIF. So much has been discovered that it has cast doubt on whether a sustained fusion reaction is commercially feasible using this method.
