Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
Posted on 01/09/2008 6:01:33 AM PST by Uncledave
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
I wish that was a publicly traded company one could invest in. Unfortunately the multi-billionares of Google and others already own it. Probably an IPO in the future.
But will an EMP wipe them all out?
Maybe nano-tech can overcome that risk.
Look for nanosolar, a company rolling out CIGS solar cells. I expect they will have an IPO and they are printing real product
I'm not doubting his claim but it is really strange that the professor would state this incorrectly. Could it be a typo?
There is a glaring error in this story, platinum is not a highly reactive metal.
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It's not chemically reactive. But this is a photovoltaic reaction, and perhaps platinum responds to photons in a "highly reactive" manner.
All of which is true, but the technolgy developed by Nanosolar is better on all counts, and is already going into large-scale production. No platinum, no glass, low temperature fabrication, ultra-cheap production mechanism.
The heck it's not. It's one of the MOST reactive catalytic materials available. True--it itself does not change state in most of its uses---but it darned well DOES participate in the chemical reactions it catalyzes.
Not according to the latest from the company. The head honcho says that have all the funding they need for the foreseeable future already sewed up without needing an IPO. But they ARE indeed "printing real product"---and building world-scale production plants to produce even more.
At any rate, I think the photo-cell guy wasn't talking about chemical reactions for the platinum.
That’s what the guy said, but I looked at the manufacturing facilities they’re building. They’re going to blow through that $200 million, and I’m hoping that when they do, the rest of us will have a chance at these. At $1/Watt, I am definitely in.
You'd lose. I "am" a chemist. And any chemist will tell you that platinum is darned well HIGHLY reactive. The mechanism of that reacticity depends on the specific reactions it takes part in---but it DOES participate in the reactions, and it sometimes changes electron states exactly as does sodium and/or chlorine--the key difference is that at the end of the sequence of reactions, it regains it's original electron state.
I hope you're right, because I'm with you all the way. I'd definitely invest bucks there. Their approach is a gigantic breakthrough in the solar energy biz. But I think their capital will go further than you think, because the actual production machinery is inherently pretty cheap.
I know -- which is why I wanted to avoid the contest. But to dribble on my shoes a bit, what you've described confirms that platinum really is a different kind of beast in these reactions.
And anyway, once again, I don't think the fellow is really talking about chemical reactions in his solar cells.
I also wonder about their vulnerability to voltage induced by nearby lightning. They are just a big P-N junction. Any breakdown across the junction will destroy it and the surface area of the junction is so huge compared to that found in IC geometries.
“I also wonder about their vulnerability to voltage induced by nearby lightning.”
I’m Polish so I can offer this solution.
Wrap the entire panel in copper screening and that’ll block the pulse from lightning!
The Google guys, who have made it their mission in life to promote alternate energy, are behind it. This company has effectively unlimited VC funding.
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