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	Two scientists who joined Angels Nest in the winter of 2006 will change the face of the way we produce solar energy forever. Robert R. Walters, VP of Corporate Business Development and Marketing for Entech Solar in Keller Texas, and Michael L. Fulton at Ion Beam Optics have found away to double the power output of a solar panel per square meter by concentrating sunlight through a Fresnel Lens and magnify it onto a concentrated solar energy chip.

	(Left photo: Robert R. Walters & Michael L. Fulton at Angels Nest Conference during February, 2006.)


	How genius is this? Concentrating sunlight on smaller solar energy chips means more power per reaction space for a lower cost. While typical solar panels have an average efficiency of 12%, this new revolutionary solar panel is as high as 30% efficient.

	(Looking through a Fresnel Lens at Robert & Michael)

This Fresnel lens takes nearly a square meter of sunlight and concentrates it into about a square centimeter.

ENTECH's fourth-generation concentrator is the world's largest PV module, with an aperture area of 3 m² and a rated power output of 430 watts. This PV module uses a large acrylic plastic Fresnel lens to focus sunlight onto small silicon cells. Concentrating the sunlight to 20 times its normal intensity reduces the use of expensive silicon cell material by 95% (or


	uses 5%), compared to conventional flat-plate PV modules. The solar cells are mounted to an extruded aluminum heat sink which keeps the cells about as cool as conventional 1-sun cells. The solar cell assemblies, electrically insulated and encapsulated for durability, use a unique patented optical device called a prism cover to boost performance. An aluminum housing supports and

encloses the module. Each module is 0.9 m (3') wide, 3.7 m (12') long, and 0.9 m (3') high.

ENTECH's reliable Fresnel lens PV technology has been developed with help from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), several U.S. utilities and many other private enterprises. DOE, Sandia, and NREL have recently established the National Center for Photovoltaics.


	This new break-through in solar power generation will allow solar panels to be made with 95% less silicon (major expense in PV solar panels), and produce 2 times as much power per square meter of panel space. (Left photo: ENTECH 100 kW Ground-Based PV Power Plant.)

A small 100 Thousand Watt (100 kW) power facility like this can produce enough electricity to run 33.33 homes at 3 kilowatts each. 3 kilowatts is more than enough power to run all of the major appliances in a 2-3 bedroom home.

But Michael Fulton and Robert Walters are also designing a solar cell that heats water to 160 degrees at the same time it is producing electricity with no loss in electric power consumption, all in the same cell space. This means that the hot water can be used to run into hot water floors for home heating, and can be used for dishes and bathing for no added cost in heating expense.

They have also engineered solar skylights that let in 3 times more light than conventional sky lighting to allow for less energy in daytime lighting use.

ENTECH's New Collimating Tubular Skylight Technology. Natural light also has proven to stimulate higher grades in student classrooms over florescent lighting.

ENTECH’s Fresnel Lens solar panels were also used on NASA’s Deep Space 1 to power its Electric Ion Propulsion System. NASA’s Deep Space 1 Solar Panels were designed by Robert Walters and Michael Fulton. 2.5 Kilowatts of solar energy combined with low volumes of Xenon gas (fuel) drives the Ion Thruster Engines to send the satellite spacecraft up to nearly 10,000 Miles Per Hour. More energy will mean faster ion velocities. This allows us to explore the solar system with low fuel weight and maximum range. Ion thrusters are the new frontier for space propulsion at NASA.


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