There's a lot more to sunlight than just what we can see through a window.
Posted on 01/12/2010 7:13:23 AM PST by PeaceBeWithYou
New Energy Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: NENE), developer of MotionPower™ technologies for generating sustainable electricity from the kinetic energy of moving vehicles and SolarWindow™ technologies capable of generating electricity on see-thru glass windows, today announced that researchers have developed a novel, patent-pending process for ‘spraying’ solar cells and their related components onto glass – a technical achievement recently presented in AZoNano’s (peer-reviewed, Journal of Nanotechnology Online; Dec. 20, 2009), “Nanotechnology Thought Leaders” series.
“The ability to spray solar coatings directly onto glass follows on the heels of our recent breakthrough which replaced visibility-blocking metal with environmentally-friendly see-thru compounds, and marks an important advance in the development of our see-thru glass windows capable of generating electricity,” announced Mr. Meetesh V. Patel, President and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc.“In commercial terms, this new spray technology could translate into important manufacturing advantages for our SolarWindow™, including significant cost-savings, high-speed production, and room-temperature deposition – common barriers to commercial success for innovative solar technologies.”
Once scaled-up for use in commercial-scale production, researchers anticipate the ability to spray solar coatings directly onto New Energy’s first-of-its-kind see-thru SolarWindow™, currently under development, could provide significant commercial production advantages over today’s thin-films. Conventional solar films are typically manufactured using expensive and slow manufacturing methods which rely on high-temperature and finicky ‘vacuum deposition’ processes for depositing solar materials onto substrates; the resultant products are simply too thick to allow for transparency, an important consideration in the development of a commercially viable solar-powered glass window.
Last week, New Energy announced that researchers successfully overcame one of the biggest transparency-related obstacles faced by scientists developing New Energy’s SolarWindow™ technology --- the presence of metal, an opaque material which blocks visibility and prevents light from passing through glass. Eliminating metal has proved especially challenging since the metal component acts as the negative ‘polar contact’ – an important function in collecting the electricity generated from solar cells on the surface of the glass.
Last week’s breakthrough replaces this ‘visibility-blocking’ metal with environmentally-friendly and more transparent compounds. These compounds now function as the negative polar contact and collect electricity from New Energy’s SolarWindow™.
The production of solar-generated electricity on glass is made possible by the world’s tiniest working solar cells, which along with their related components, have now been successfully sprayed on to glass surfaces by researchers currently developing the Company’s SolarWindow™.
These ultra-small solar cells measure less than 1/4 the size of a grain of rice, are fabricated using environmentally-friendly materials, and successfully produce electricity, as demonstrated in a published peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy of the American Institute of Physics.
Unique performance properties of New Energy’s ultra-small solar cells enable development of an ultra-thin film, only 1/1000th the thickness of a human hair, or 1/10th of a micrometer. In contrast, conventional thin films are exponentially thicker, measuring several micrometers thick and inhibiting transparency. In photovoltaic applications such as see-thru windows, where transparency is a primary concern, today’s thin film solar cells simply cannot be utilized to produce a transparent solar window for application in homes, offices, and commercial buildings.
There are nearly 5 million commercial buildings in America, according to the Energy Information Administration, and more than 80 million single detached homes. New Energy’s SolarWindow™ technology is under development for commercial application in such buildings.
As far as alternatives are concerned, solar is definitely better than wind. Still a problem in the cloudy places but we “should” be able to use hydro.
The objective of a solar cell is to absorb light and convert it to electricity, not transmit it. Every photon passed through the window/device is a photon not creating electricity. There is no mention of quantum efficiency either. But hey, I am saving up my pennies so that I can start snapping up shares of this guy’s company. [sarcasm not intended as investment advice]
Wow a solar panel breakthough is right around the corner!
(Just like that cancer cure.)
can transparent aluminum be that far behind?
The way “transparent” aluminum is written about it’s probably out and about but not where we are ever going to see it.
A good cheap solar shingle would be more practical than windows.
From Wicki.....
Sputter coating in microscopy is a process of covering a specimen with a very thin layer of heavy metal, generally a gold/palladium (Au/Pd) mixture. This coating increases the ability of a specimen to conduct electricity and emit secondary electrons when in a scanning electron microscope, acting as a “stain” for electron microscopy. Biological specimens, composed largely of carbon compounds, are usually poor emitters of secondary electrons due to the low atomic number of carbon. Rather than absorbing electrons from the electron source of the microscope and then emitting electrons for detection, carbon compounds tend to collect a charge.
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the sputter coating process is that used on the reflective glass in the big buildings and other such applications. It replaces the old vacuum deposition process of the 70’s.
It has apparently been adjusted for application of electrogenerating coatings as well.
There's a lot more to sunlight than just what we can see through a window.
Do you care to expand on hydro?
The book 'Cadillac Desert' proposes that all the good hydro locations are already in use, and a lot of the bad ones too.
I guess it all depends on your definition of good. If you’re looking at major dams as being good, you won’t find them here in the midwest. If you’re looking at using smaller dams to produce in multiple locations its a different matter.
You could also explain to me how you convert the kinetic energy of moving cars to renwable energy. I am awfully confused on this point since I had imagined that the purpose of a car is to go somewhere at some speed and that speed is the kinetic energy of the car (E=mv**2), which is needed for the car to go somewhere. In the process of converting that kinetic energy to renewable energy don't you stop the car or do I not understand? If you stop the car, then why have the car in the first place, or is there some way of converting the kinetic energy to renewable energy without stopping the car? How do you make use of this renewable energy? Is there a cable connecting to the power grid, or do you generate and store H2?
I am very confused and eager to have an explanation of these complicated matters, as my simple minded brain just cannot wrap itself around this stuff.
Solar may be marginally better than wind, but they are both VERY low quality energy sources for both physical and environmental reasons.
Next time a greenie says “We can get energy from the sun for FREE!”, ask him/her: Where?
Bingo!
No need to be a jerk about it with your snide "simple minded PhD" comments, I didn't think I was being rude to you.
There has been work on infrared solar cells, for one thing, and in most office buildings you'll notice that the windows are usually reflective:
... so why not capture some of that solar energy instead of just reflecting it down onto the parking lot? The only glass that's supposed to be 100% perfectly transparent to the entire visible spectrum is found in camera lenses, not in windows.
As for energy from moving cars - the energy expended by the car moving the air in front of it out of the way is wasted, unless you can capture it with a wind turbine overhead or in the median barrier.
My shingles are buried under a foot of snow right now...
So an office-window solar cell which absorbed and converted the UV/blue end of the spectrum could generate power while not materially impacting the view.
Ocean Current Energy can convert the forces that drive global climate directly into electricity. The Gulf Stream passes by the Miami electricity market. Estimates of recoverable energy range to 10 giga watts. @ 4-5 cents per kilowatt.
http://www.oceanpowermagazine.net/Ocean%20Power/company/statoil-hydro/
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