Presented by Wei Pan
Recap by guest-contributor Atinuke Ademola-Idowu, PhD Candidate, Electrical Engineering, University of Washington Seattle.
DWP Energy Solutions aims to improve the dual use opportunity of Greenhouses – generating electricity while growing food – which can result in extra income for the farmers. When a regular photovoltaic (PV) is mounted on the roof, it results in shading with 1% light loss resulting in 0.5% crop loss. The TSM is a combination of bifacial solar cell PV and a reflector which is not mounted on the roof but hangs in the structure below the roof. TSM utilizes dichroic splitting to split the light spectrum a portion of which gets reflected back to the bifacial solar cell, thereby maximizing the solar energy received by the panel and the solar energy required for photosynthesis by the greenhouse. It generates twice as much power due to structure of the PV and reflector and 1- axis tracking. It also helps with the temperature regulation of the greenhouse, typically kept within 65-75F, by reflecting a portion of the solar energy coming in.