News Article
Solar powered lighting
Sharp has developed two solar powered lighting systems - an illuminating solar panel and a solar street light. The panel integrates long-life, energy-efficient, high-intensity light emitting diodes (LEDs) with thin-film, 'see-through' solar cells into a single solar module. The street light combines solar cells with high-intensity LEDs and eliminates the need for underground or overhead wiring work.
Sharp has developed two solar powered lighting systems - an illuminating solar panel and a solar street light. The panel integrates long-life, energy-efficient, high-intensity light emitting diodes (LEDs) with thin-film, 'see-through' solar cells into a single solar module. The street light combines solar cells with high-intensity LEDs and eliminates the need for underground or overhead wiring work.
The idea is to gather solar power during the day into rechargeable batteries that can be used at night to provide illumination either in buildings or on the streets. Sharp reports a conversion efficiency of 7.3% - almost 1.5 times higher than for conventional amorphous silicon solar cells. The service life of the LEDs in the panel system is 40,000 hours Ð significantly longer than incandescent (1000 hours) or fluorescent (5000-12000 hours) lighting.
The panels are due to be available on request from November 1, 2004. The street light production is due to start at a capacity of 2000 units/month from September 15, 2004.
