Magnifying light by a factor of 10,000, this liquid-filled, sun-tracking, energy-harvesting glass sphere is so powerful that it can not only harvest solar rays directly but is even able to draw power from reflected lunar light. Its high efficiency comes from the motion of its panning capture apparatus as well as the nearly-lossless concentration of thermal energy.
André Broessel is the European architect and engineer behind this weatherproof energy harvesting system that turns light into heat. It is in many regards more robust, efficient and versatile than traditional photovalics, concentrating available light sources and multiplying their thermal effect (click to enlarge the diagram below for a better understanding of the basic system).
Made to be mounted on buildings individually or in arrays, a computerized control system passively tracks available illumination in the day, but can also follow and be fueled by moonlight.
The balls can work both to generate power and as replacements to traditional window apertures, creating a wide variety of potential hybrid architectural applications as well.
Finally, this video “is an introduction to Rawlemon Solar Energy Generator. It shortly explain the principles of our patent pending micro tracking system, and few applications we are working on” – for more, visit their website here.