Canadian company uses waste heat from solar panels to extract lithium

Introduction: Enertopia, headquartered in Canada, has applied for a provisional patent. It is said that the technology can increase the output of photovoltaic systems by 10% or more and reduce the thermal stress of the panel. A Canadian company that used to deal in medical marijuana and feminine health products applied for a provisional patent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This technology is said to increase the output of photovoltaic systems by 10% or more and reduce panel thermal stress. . Enertopia, headquartered in Kelowna, British Columbia, said its technology can create a closed system loop that uses only solar energy to extract lithium from the source rock of its Nevada mine. This technology extracts excess heat from solar panels and heats the brine solution from 50°C to 60°C in a standard three to four-hour processing cycle. The company said that when it started to create a low-carbon lithium extraction pilot plant, it realized that it could take advantage of the low efficiency associated with photovoltaic panels. In particular, it found that as the temperature rises, photovoltaic panels will be affected by thermal stress. Manufacturers usually set the temperature of photovoltaic panels at 25°C. But field work in the Nevada desert has shown that the temperature on the back of the solar panels often exceeds about 40°C, which may damage the panels and reduce output. The company said its provisional patent solves this heat problem. According to Enertopia, if the rated temperature coefficient of a battery panel is above 25°C and -16.7°C is -0.50%, the output power of the battery panel will drop by half every time the temperature drops by 16.7°C. It said that when the solar cell array in the Nevada desert operates in a thermal stress zone of about 16°C, the output of its solar cell array will drop by 15% or more. The technology is designed to retrofit existing photovoltaic panels. A third party with a 3 MW solar array has agreed to conduct real-time comparative testing of its photovoltaic sub-arrays. The goal is to increase photovoltaic production while eliminating thermal stress. In December of last year, Enertopia received the US Patent and Trademark Office No. 6,024,086 patent, 'Solar collector with elliptical absorber tube.' At that time, it expressed belief that the patent could provide a 'new method of using waste heat from various sources.'