At the end of last month, Tesla and Sun City released a solar roof product, and the highly confidential project of “Tesla Glass†gradually surfaced, with Tesla officially claiming to use it on Model 3, which will be launched next year. The material, people in the industry have been excited, solar energy houses and solar energy cars, clean energy integration life seems to be close at hand.
hope so. But it is worthwhile to study carefully what the Tesla glass is. After all, in the current official materials, there are few specific technical details.
"Super Glass" team surfaced
From the structural diagram published by Tesla's official website, the solar roof tile is covered by a layer of high-efficiency solar panels with a color transparent film, and the outermost layer is tempered glass. The tempered glass is “responsible†for the resistance to various temperature and object impacts. The colored transparent film is “responsible†for light transmission and visual beauty, and the solar panel is responsible for converting solar energy.
Among them, solar panels are produced by Panasonic and Sun City. If the 17th shareholder voted through Tesla's successful acquisition of Sun City, the two sides will manufacture solar panels at the SolarCity plant in Buffalo, New York, USA; The light-transmissive film was developed by 3M Company.
In an interview with the media, 3M said that Tesla found them and proposed the design concept of colored transparent film, and then 3M company developed its design. The light-transmissive film can increase the transmittance to the greatest extent and improve the conversion of light energy. At the same time, the special louver-like film structure changes the color of the overall tile according to the illumination angle, thus making the solar roof from the street. Looks like a normal roof, only when you look from the top down.
It now appears that this layer of translucent transparent film is the key to making Tesla's solar roof defeat all previous similar products. Because of the aesthetic problem, the former solar roof looks like a solar panel on the roof. Can't talk about architectural beauty. The outermost tempered glass is a flexible glass material, which should be the main part of the Tesla glass team. This flexible glass will resilience when subjected to external impact, thus protecting the object.
Tesla later mentioned that Tesla glass will be applied to Model 3, which has led to many people's imagination. The first is the Model 3's oversized windshield and ceiling. It is possible to use this special material to use solar energy to power the components or even the power of the car. Secondly, various touch screen devices in the car are also very likely to use this flexible glass. We may wish to imagine that as glass technology continues to improve, there are more choices in color. This flexible material with solar energy can even be applied to the whole body. After all, high strength + resilience can be good at the same time. Protect people inside and outside the car. (Don't say that the cost is too high to consider, low-cost rockets are created, nothing is impossible)
The future of solar roof promotion depends on cost and energy efficiency
Solar roofs, solar cars, the concept is not new, the most important issue for solar products is still cost and energy efficiency. Musk said at the press conference that the overall cost of using this solar roof is lower than that of traditional tile roofs. He said that this special glass material is not expensive to produce.
In fact, Sun City acquired Silevo, a company specializing in the production of solar panels, in 2014. It is reported that the company's technology can help Sun City improve energy efficiency and reduce costs. In 2015, Sun City announced the development of the world's most efficient solar energy. Panels, with an energy efficiency of up to 22%, compared to similar panels on the market, Sun City says energy efficiency can increase by 30% to 40% while maintaining the same size and reducing production costs.
Needless to say, as long as Musk is interested, he can force his team to constantly challenge the technical limitations, otherwise his rocket can not be created. When referring to a component in the rocket development process, Musk's next scientist said that at NASA, there will be a lot of discussion sessions to discuss this issue. The cost of snacks at the meeting is higher than the budget given by Musk.
Therefore, it can be expected that Tesla and Sun City have developed lower-cost solar panel technology to pave the way for larger-scale promotion.
Questioning is also there
Since the details of this super-glass material have not been announced, the description of the energy efficiency and strength of solar tiles has attracted a lot of controversy after the product is released. Many experts have said that under the current technical conditions, Musk claims that the energy efficiency is difficult. achieve.
In fact, Tesla and Sun City's solar panels use the third generation of solar film power generation technology, which basically represents the future development of solar technology. Because of its thinness and flexibility, thin-film batteries have a wider future for industrial applications. Japan has developed clothes made of thin-film solar cells (not knowing what point is) and a spacecraft (Mask said: this can be). However, the premise of large-scale promotion is still energy efficiency and cost. European multinational scientists have established an alliance for solar thin film technology, and announced that they will develop solar thin film batteries with energy efficiency of around 25%. In fact, as long as the conversion energy efficiency is high enough, it is not difficult to build a car.
In fact, Tesla's solar roof and cars using super glass can also be regarded as the "star products" that thin film power generation technology has spread to the whole world. After all, thin film power generation technology has always been an important but slow in solar technology. Future issues are not able to reach their potential because of the current limitations.
This way I am more confident that Musk can force his team to develop the potential of this technology and bring us more future products.
PS, that is, if there is an accident in the acquisition of the 17th, everything will be frustrated. After all, the acquisition of Sun City, all this can continue, we have a chance to see if Musk has a miracle.
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