The Sunflower Solar Harvester, developed by Airlight Energy, can produce heat, refrigeration, and desalinated water. From 10 hours of sunlight, it can provide 12kW of energy sufficient to electrify several households.
The Integrated system
Gianluca Ambrosetti, Airlight Energy's Head of Research said to CNN "as an integrated system, the Sunflower Solar Harvester supplies both heat and electricity." "You can use this heat to drive a cooling system too, if you need refrigeration."
According to Ambrosetti, the system will not work well in areas where the demand for electricity is high and those areas which have a cold climate. Places with good solar energy, like Japan, have a lot of potential.
The Water-cooled
The center of the technology is water cooled solar panels designed by IBM. The heat created by the reflector mirrors was carried away by microchannels.
The water carried away the heat at the speed that maintains microchips' ideal temperature. This makes Sunflower Solar Harvester one of the most efficient producers of solar energy present.
The Remote appeal
Even though the company has not stated that this technology can totally substitute the fuel-powered generator sets, Ambrosetti stated that there is a possibility to run several remote facilities by means of parabolic mirrors.
Around 20kW thermal power is produced by the system in just 10 hours of sunlight which is enough to run a low-temperature desalinator in coastline areas. It can produce 2500 liters fresh water daily.
The Vascular system
Ambrosetti said that the inspiration of cooling system comes from the nature where excessive amounts of heat is carried away by vascular system.
"We are still in a long way from commercialization, but what we can do is to tap into its potential. We plan to set up early adopter projects that would be running by 2016," he said. "We aim to have four or five dishes in various locations around the world to show the potential of the system so people can really start to touch it with their hands."
The system will possibly attract green commercial and residential developments.
The project was also nominated by Greenpeace as the world's top "solar wonder."