How One 13-Year-Old Is Helping Solve A Huge Solar Panel Limitation
Tired of moving solar-powered Christmas lights, a seventh grader built a tracker that lets gravity do the work.
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Jason Chang was sick of his mother asking him to adjust the family's solar-powered Christmas lights to get more sun, so he devised a solution with big potential. The 13-year-old seventh grader at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts created a solar tracker that utilizes water and gravity to move a solar panel without the need for a motor, a sunlight sensor or electricity to power the mechanism.
The prototype was less than $25 and generated about 20 percent more voltage than a stationary panel in outdoor tests, CBS Boston reports. The contraption tackles a basic limitation of fixed solar panels: the inability to change position as the sun moves across the sky. This teenager's bright idea is attracting national attention. Here's how it works.
A bucket of water...
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