Anyone who ’s dropped a cellular phone in the bath jazz that water system and microelectronics do n’t usually mix well . But atIBM ’s Swiss labin Zurich , get married the two is becoming almost commonplace : microprocessor with urine coursing through microchannels carved deep inside them are already crunching data point inSuperMUC , an IBM supercomputer – with the oestrus that the water carry out used to warm nearby buildings .
And last workweek , on an unseasonally sunny Zurich rooftop , IBM move public before begoggled diary keeper with a demonstration of the technology ’s newest coating : a solar zip - mother microprocessor chip array whose waste passion might one day drivedesalination systemsin arid area like the Sahara . The unbendable haslong call this system , and it ’s still a work in progression , but it has now reach a form that can be demonstrated .
The trick with a hard photovoltaic ( CPV ) system like IBM ’s is to place a high-pitched - execution electrical energy - generating solar prison cell raiment at the focal point of a dish that collects sunlight ( unlike a solar concentrator , which pore a airfield of sun - track mirror onto a steam generator that drives a turbine ) . In IBM ’s CPV system , weewee gushes through the radical of the solar cells , cool down them to a temperature where they convert sunlight to electricity most efficiently . This beats unconstipated solar power in two ways : it guarantees optimum efficiency and creates hot piss that can be used for any purpose – with amulti - effect boilingdesalination process being IBM ’s choice .
On IBM ’s rooftop , I assume ultra - dark goggles to watchStephen Paredes , Bruno Micheland colleagues demonstrate their dazzling concept . A 1.5 - m mirrored smasher concentrate the sun ’s energy by 150 fourth dimension onto their prototype CPV chip , which has been engineered to maximise thermal contact with a water - cooled layer . It ’s engrossing to see their control swindle : one-half of it is electronic but the rest , candidly , is plumbing – an interesting intermixture of disciplines indeed . Paredes ’s laptop computer show the concentrator dish conversion efficiency to be about 18 per cent – respectable for a prototype , he say .
Their research aim now is to move towards 40 per cent efficiency or more with good - cooled CPV array that can cope with solar radiation 5000 time the sun ’s normal intensity . “ We fuck how to orchestrate these cooling packages for estimator so we ’re confident we can make this part to solar vim , ” says Michel .
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