Posted on 01/28/2005 5:47:41 AM PST by presidio9
Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day.
The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains the first solar cells able to harness the sun's invisible, infrared rays. The breakthrough has led theorists to predict that plastic solar cells could one day become five times more efficient than current solar cell technology.
Like paint, the composite can be sprayed onto other materials and used as portable electricity. A sweater coated in the material could power a cell phone or other wireless devices. A hydrogen-powered car painted with the film could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car's battery.
The researchers envision that one day "solar farms" consisting of the plastic material could be rolled across deserts to generate enough clean energy to supply the entire planet's power needs.
"The sun that reaches the Earth's surface delivers 10,000 times more energy than we consume," said Ted Sargent, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Toronto. Sargent is one of the inventors of the new plastic material.
"If we could cover 0.1 percent of the Earth's surface with [very efficient] large-area solar cells," he said, "we could in principle replace all of our energy habits with a source of power which is clean and renewable."
Infrared Power
Plastic solar cells are not new. But existing materials are only able to harness the sun's visible light. While half of the sun's power lies in the visible spectrum, the other half lies in the infrared spectrum.
The new material is the first plastic composite that is able to harness the infrared portion.
"Everything that's warm gives off some heat. Even people and animals give off heat," Sargent said. "So there actually is some power remaining in the infrared [spectrum], even when it appears to us to be dark outside."
The researchers combined specially designed nano particles called quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy in the infrared.
With further advances, the new plastic "could allow up to 30 percent of the sun's radiant energy to be harnessed, compared to 6 percent in today's best plastic solar cells," said Peter Peumans, a Stanford University electrical engineering professor, who studied the work.
Electrical Sweaters
The new material could make technology truly wireless.
"We have this expectation that we don't have to plug into a phone jack anymore to talk on the phone, but we're resigned to the fact that we have to plug into an electrical outlet to recharge the batteries," Sargent said. "That's only communications wireless, not power wireless."
He said the plastic coating could be woven into a shirt or sweater and used to charge an item like a cell phone.
"A sweater is already absorbing all sorts of light both in the infrared and the visible," said Sargent. "Instead of just turning that into heat, as it currently does, imagine if it were to turn that into electricity."
Other possibilities include energy-saving plastic sheeting that could be unfurled onto a rooftop to supply heating needs, or solar cell window coating that could let in enough infrared light to power home appliances.
Cost-Effectiveness
Ultimately, a large amount of the sun's energy could be harnessed through "solar farms" and used to power all our energy needs, the researchers predict.
"This could potentially displace other sources of electrical production that produce greenhouse gases, such as coal," Sargent said.
In Japan, the world's largest solar-power market, the government expects that 50 percent of residential power supply will come from solar power by 2030, up from a fraction of a percent today.
The biggest hurdle facing solar power is cost-effectiveness.
At a current cost of 25 to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour, solar power is significantly more expensive than conventional electrical power for residences. Average U.S. residential power prices are less than ten cents per kilowatt-hour, according to experts.
But that could change with the new material.
"Flexible, roller-processed solar cells have the potential to turn the sun's power into a clean, green, convenient source of energy," said John Wolfe, a nanotechnology venture capital investor at Lux Capital in New York City.
We'd probably all be surprised by how much.
There's a reason this doesn't work. Planetary albedo is about 0.3. If you eliminate that 30% reflection from 0.1% of the earth's surface as mentioned in the article and instead capture that energy, then that is a lot more total solar energy absorbed by the planet. It will make the greenhouse effect look like a refrigerator.
They are going to LEDs for car tail lights and motorcycle tail lights too. Probably also turnsignal indicators.
As I understand it, The main advantage of LEDs is not power consumption. The main advantage is how long they last. LED lights are made of several independent "units" rather than one filament or one tube(as in florescents). When an LED starts to go bad, you only lose one "dot" at a time and so you have plenty of time to notice it and get it replaced before total malfunction. With filaments and tubes, it either works or it don't, there's no inbetween and no warning.
When my Mom lived on the Jersey shore she'd take me by this guy's house on the ocean and said how great it was that he was "becoming independent" of the power company. He had a wind turbine on a tall tower, a ground-level PV array, south-facing and tilted up all nice and neat. At first it didn't seem like a bad plan. NJ isn't all that great for sunlight but down the shore the air is reasonably clean and being at ground level he could hose the seagull poop off his PV array pretty easily (as well as the sand ans salt). The wind blows fairly well on the coast so his wind turbine kind of made sense.
Then the neighbors started complaining about the noise from his windmill. It made a kind of swishing and whirring they didn't like so they got a court order forcing him to feather that prop. Then one season a hurricane came up the coast and washed his PV array away. While I think he may have felt good about installing all that stuff at first, I got the impression from reading interviews with him in the local papers that he was kind of glad to be rid of the junk and back on the utility grid because he was getting tired of dealing with the stuff and the associated hassles.
The great thing about this country is that individuals are free to spend (waste) their money on feel-good things, if they want. One of my associates just blew about 4 bills for a ho,me entertainment system, the kind with the 50" flat panel and surround-sound, the works. He didn't need it, but it's fun to have. His kids like it. They get a vicarious kind of thrill using it.
But as a matter of public policy, feel-good kinds of schemes are probably a poor choice when there are reasonable alternatives.
I agree, there is just no logical way to attack a person's (legal) hobbies. They don't have to justify them "economically", because they are, after all, just hobbies.
Another justification for such a solar power installation, as the one referenced in #118 by ikka, is in building a "get outta Dodge" refuge. I took the time to go through the owner's online "journal", that included a lot of pictures of his property, and I've got to tell you, he's living in some real pretty (and relatively isolated) country. Ideal location.
--Boot
Sometimes doing things like this just feel good and we derive pleasure in that. Like many in my neighborhood, I have a wood burning fireplace. It isn't used heat the house, but is fun to huddle around with the family on a cold night. It's just comforting and fun, nothing more. It won't pay off economically, it won't make us more energy independent. If anything, it's kind of a decadent pleasure. But until someone writes a law saying it's illegal to do so, we'll probably use it.
And how much do they have to degrade before they're replaced? They probably lose 10% of their capacity in the first year.
Is it a "pro-rated" guarantee? Most likely, but BH's comment gets to the heart of the matter.
How many high tech companies go out of business in 5, 10, 20 years. A lot. Even insurance companies go out of business. A lot of people who bought long term care insurance have ended up screwed, because the company went belly up, and the same sort of risk applies to purchasing anything with a super long warranty.
Just a Blast from the Past, looks like neither of you has seen it. Found it with Google while looking for something else.
Buying The Grid
Gov. Davis' Plan Puts Taxpayers on the Wrong Side of Future Technologies
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Published: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 Author: Hal Plotkin
Posted on 03/13/2001 08:45:35 PST by Dog Gone
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3aae4eaf7235.htm
Earth for the Unbalanced--Day 25--
Algore's "Marshall Plan" For All of Us--Part 2 (Must Read)
Source: Earth in the Balance
Published: November 1, 2000 Author: Al Gore and All of Us
Posted on 11/01/2000 04:27:10 PST by Chairman_December_19th_Society
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a000c1e6d1f.htm
(see http://www.FreeRepublic.com/~chairmandecember19th/links for the other such threads by CD19S)
Yep, missed it. Thanks.
As a layman when it comes to solar energy is there anything I should be excited about? I don't really see how this will put a dent in the current energy situation.
I don't know, it depends on where you live and how you want to live. Where I live, it doesn't make much sense. I haven't seen the sun in what seems like weeks, and I'd be cutting down all the trees in the neighborhood if I were to try to heat the house to a reasonable level using the fireplace (something that probably wouldn't endear me to the neighbors, Christmas season or not). But if you're in the middle of a sunny area of the country where it would cost a mint to run the lines to hook up to the grid, it probably might be worth a look. Trouble is, 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the country's population probably isn't in that situation.
Cool! If half the sun's light is visible and the other half is infra-red, I guess I can stop worrying about exposure to ultra-violet. Or is that the third half?
Both poles. Each is a solar powerhouse half the year.
I was half-joking. Questions of efficiency aside, the sheer scale of running lines (or microwave towers) to the poles would make that free energy awfully expensive. And would have to be redone or elevated every several years, as they have to with the labs and camps up/down there, because they sink into the ice.
We'll call it a "Zot Suit".
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