Khosla’s PVT Solar Taps Wasted Heat

The New York Times new blog Green Inc. just launched and already features a nice profile of a stealthy solar startup PVT Solar, which is backed by cleantech investor Vinod Khosla. The two-year-old Berkeley-based company is working on turning the wasted heat of standard solar systems into valuable heat for inside the home or to heat hot water.

Details are very scare, and the company does not have a web site up with any descriptions, but the PVT is reportedly testing an electronic system to move the heat around the home where it’s needed the most, and part of the system could use stones underneath the panels to absorb the heat.

An increasing number of startups are using the smarter systems of the infotech world to boost the efficiency of solar systems. Enphase Energy uses distributed inverters and a monitoring system to tell which panels aren’t performing as well. Fat Spaniel similarly enables renewable power generators to monitor solar systems, but through software and services. We don’t know much about PVT’s plans, but we’ll look into it more.