Posted on 02/16/2010 9:14:53 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
A team of US research scientists have made a startling breakthrough in solar-cell development, creating flexible wire-based cell substrates that use just one per cent of the silicon needed for brittle and comparatively heavy conventional cells.
Solar cells made from this material would not only be less expensive than current photovoltaics, but due to their low weight and bendable structure the could be used in a wide variety of applications. Solar curtains, anyone?
The new technique is described in a paper nimbly entitled "Enhanced absorption and carrier collection in Si wire arrays for photovoltaic applications" published in Nature Materials by a team of researches from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The trick in this new method is to bundle one-micrometer-thick silicon wires and embed the resulting array vertically in a flexible polymer. Thus bundled, the paper claims, the array could capture and transmit up to 96 per cent of light in peak conditions while requiring only one per cent of the silicon needed by conventional cells.
What's more, the wire arrays would have work over "over a broad range of incidence angles," thus capturing light efficiently with less need to be reoriented.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
The efficiency is probably much lower. Nanosolar is already doing flexible solar arrays, albeit at only 10-15% efficiency, but it’s free energy essentially, and silicon is where most of the money is at in these arrays, along with mounting.
This could be really cool.
I'll pay attention then.
It must be cheap, efficient and durable.
If it is none of those I will burn gasoline instead...
And then, if they could package these sheets folded like corrugated cardboard stiffeners they could greatly increase the surface area within any given frame or panel size. Think of ordinary cardboard with one of the outer skin sheets peeled off.
Bingo!
I’ll go Green only when it saves me money and aggravation to do so. Business will start mass-producing green energy products when they can profitably do so without government grants.
I’ve seen thousands of articles like this over the years. They usually leave out the drawbacks that prevent this cool stuff from ever hitting the market.
“they could greatly increase the surface area within any given frame or panel size.”
That type of surface area increase is good for filtration or gas exchange, but won’t increase insolation at all. It would be like having a flat panel angled away from the sun.
Put it on a wide-angle collector, though, and it may help.
If one were to believe Nanosolar's claims, they should be ruling the world by now.
For me, “green” is about 20% of the equation. The other 80% is self sufficiency. I bought a farm with a well in Kentucky last year. If I could add cheap solar power and all LED lighting, I could live almost completely off the grid.
Well, I still need internet. ;)
So, the photovoltaic cell captures 96% of sunlight and has a lab efficiency of around 17%. I take it it will generate an enormous amount of heat. Any idea what the substrate is and the estimated cost/watt?
Geez, I have lots of questions (lifespan, environmental degradation, scalability, mass production feasibility, etc.).
“Well, I still need internet”
If this stuff is as flexible as they say, couldn’t it just be woven into clothing? That would mean you could [theoretically] live on a desert island (or mountain top) without any electricity whatsoever. You’d just plug your laptop and peripherals into your clothing to get 24/7 computing, including Internet access. (Sure, there’d have to be some way to store energy for when the sun was down, but surely engineers will figure out how to do that). That’s about as self-sufficient as I can imagine.
“For me, “green” is about 20% of the equation. The other 80% is self sufficiency. I bought a farm with a well in Kentucky last year. If I could add cheap solar power and all LED lighting, I could live almost completely off the grid.
Well, I still need internet. ;)”
AC is what seperates us from the animals.
AC= Air conditioning, although alternating current would work in that statement.
>>AC is what seperates us from the animals.<<
I thought it was our ability to accessorize.
Clairee Belcher: The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize.
Steel Magnolias...
Same here. I am negotiating with my employer in Seattle to allow me to telecommute from there. There is something exciting about earning Seattle wages in central Kentucky.
But without the DSL I would be dead in the water. Satellite could work in a pinch, but still...
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