SEOUL, KOREA - An unknown inventor, Lee Jong-Eun, obtained an extraordinary patent on an unusual solar energy system from the government in a surprisingly short time. It is very unusual because the Korean government, which is famous for its thoroughness to examine patent applications, processed this particular case very rapidly.
"It is a simple structure but my invention is very convincing," says Lee Jong-Eun confidently. He got the idea from the eyes of dragonflies. Almost all the existing solar energy systems in the world use panels, which take up a lot of space and expense, whereas Lee Jong-Eun's system uses only relatively small ball-type lenses that will collect sun light easily from every angle, virtually 360 degrees.
It takes a fairly small space and its durability is extremely long due to its simple structure. The inventor is strongly confident that it will inevitably change the existing concept of solar energy and he hopes that it will replace the nuclear power plant, which is treated more as a necessary evil.
It was no wonder that the first launch of this invention to EXCO 2012 (www.energyexpo.co.kr/kor/), Daegu, Korea (March 28-30), quickly captivated the visitors of Lee's booth. In fact, his booth was filled with so many people that no one could pass by without asking questions on how it could be possible.
His explanation was rather straightforward. "We human beings have chased the sun from the very primitive age until now because we have been trained to think that way, but the sun has been always there waiting to provide us with infinite energy.
"And it is a fact that we unconsciously perceived that there was infinite resource in it when we played house with a magnifying glass to burn objects and the problem was that we could not go just one step further because of our limited imaginative power," says the inventor.
"My patent will speak for itself and the Korean government, which examined and granted me this patent, will prove it," added Lee.
