Renkubean Indian solar energy research and development startup, and more specifically in solar tracking, had given with a way to avoid one of the biggest drawbacks of solar panels: the continuous movement of the sun, which changes the angle of incidence of the light of the panels and, therefore, prevents them from collecting the greatest amount of energy possible. The technology developed by this company, specifically, is capable of increasing energy production by up to 20%
Currently, there are several solutions so that solar panels can capture the sun’s energy; through solar tracking systems. That is, the plates, through different motors, can move depending on the location of the sun. These, however, have some drawbacks. The main one is that the moving plates must be installed in places where sunlight hits practically all day; making it difficult to use in homes, where space is much smaller.
What Renkube plates do is dispense with these movement motors by including a motionless optical tracking technology. This uses glass panels designed with the help of AI.
Renkube’s solution for solar panels has several advantages
Renkube has not offered details about the development of the panel, but has offered its advantages. The main one is that they can increase the energy efficiency of the solar panel by 20%. This type of plate also requires less maintenance, and makes it possible to apply it in residential spaces; for example, on roofs. All this translates into a savings of up to 7 Mega tons of CO emissions2 in 25 years taking as reference a 1 GW solar farm.
In parallel, Renkube solar panels are also capable of redirecting excessive solar energy towards the ground to help in the growth of plants.
For the moment, yes, it is a developing technology. Renkube is currently looking to collaborate with manufacturers to produce their product, and they hope to have the first models ready within the next year.
Renkube’s solution is not the only one that allows increasing the energy performance of solar panels. Phytonicsa technological subsidiary of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in Germany, has also developed panels capable of generating up to 10% more energy, while preventing them from reflecting sunlight.
This anti-reflective coating is ideal for placing solar panels in places where it was not previously possible. Reflected sunlight can actually be a serious problem in places where there is vegetation, among other scenarios.