According to Sharp Corporation, there are approximately 1.6 billion people living on the planet without access to television due to them being geographically situated beyond the reach of conventional power-delivery grid systems.
Sharp announces eco-friendly prototype solar-powered LCD television system. Image: Sharp Corp.
However, the consumer electronics company reckons it has a prototype answer to that demographic shortfall in the form of an ultra low power consumption 26-inch LCD television that enables “off-the-grid” viewing via a connected solar module equal in size to the actual television set.
Also doubling up as an eco-friendly choice for those “on-the-grid” consumers looking to cut back significantly on their carbon footprints, Sharp claims that its new LCD requires only around a quarter of the power sucked up by an equivalent cathode ray tube (CRT) television, while also cutting annual energy consumption by around two thirds.
When compared with the majority of today’s LCD televisions, Sharp offers that its solar prototype provides 100 percent sun-fuelled operation while requiring approximately one-third of the power and hacking down annual energy consumption by half.
Those power usage and energy consumption savings are made possible thanks to the incorporation of Sharp’s “triple-junction thin-film solar cell module” technology, which is able to juice its host LCD set by using the sun’s energy to charge a panel with a surface area roughly equal to that of the set it is powering.
“Thin-film solar cells use significantly less refined silicon than crystalline solar cells, plus the energy used when fabricating the solar cells is lower because of fewer processing steps. And the fact they use no rare or scarce metals, or materials regulated under the RoHS Directive, means they are highly cost-effective and offer a high level of environmental performance,” outlines Sharp regarding its solar-energy process.
“The stacked triple-junction structure of these solar cells places two layers of amorphous silicon on top of a single layer of microcrystalline silicon, enabling a solar module conversion efficiency of approximately 10%, the top level in the industry. Plus, compared to crystalline solar cells, these thin-film solar cells generate ample electricity even in regions with high ambient temperatures thanks to their superior temperature characteristics.”
Tokyo-based Sharp Corp. is expected to officially shine the glowing green spotlight on its new LCD TV and solar-energy support system -- which it plans to market as an all-inclusive set -- during this week’s G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan.
Other eco-conscious devices Sharp will be unveiling during the summit include an uber-thin (20mm) 65-inch LCD TV that slashes 50 percent off current annual energy consumption figures for the LCD category, and also a new solar-LED lighting module.
The G8 Summit will take place from July 07 to July 09.
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