But, don't Blue Staters already live in those little world-of-their-own geodesic domes? Let's not waste our Natural Resources, LOL!
Posted on 03/01/2005 7:56:56 AM PST by grundle
http://www.hindu.com/seta/2005/02/03/stories/2005020300431600.htm
Breakthrough in solar photovoltaics
THE HOLY Grail of researchers in the field of solar photovoltaic (SPV) electricity is to generate it at a lower cost than that of grid electricity. The goal now seems to be within reach.
A Palo Alto (California ) start-up, named Nanosolar Inc., founded in 2002, claims that it has developed a commercial scale technology that can deliver solar electricity at 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Molecular self-assembly
The breakthrough has come through the application of nanotechnology to create components via molecular self-assembly, including quantum dots (10nm large nanoparticles) as well as nanotemplates with structural order extending through all three dimensions.
In addition, Nanosolar has demonstrated that the three dimensionally engineered nanotemplates can be conformally coated or solidly filled with semiconductor paint to create ultra-thin solar cells with layers that are yet another factor 100x thinner than conventional thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells.
This allows a 10x larger surface area of these structures to be used to achieve a 10x increase in efficiency for such thin layers, thus making it possible to use even less material for similarly efficient cells. Conventional inorganic semiconductors tend to require intricate processing to ensure large grains of crystallinity (in the extreme case: mono-crystallinity) so that charges can travel hundreds of nanometres without getting trapped and lost (at internal crystal boundaries).
The 3D nanocomposite architecture of the ultra-thin-absorber cells makes possible absorption of a substantial fraction of the incoming sunlight despite the ultra-thin layers since the charges need to be transported only several nanometres without much opportunity for a loss.
This means the requirements on the semiconductor material can be relaxed and low cost materials such as inorganic semiconductors of the IIb/VIa and Ib/IIIa/VIa families as well as solution-coatable organic semiconductors can be used.
Lower cost
According to the CEO, Martin Roscheisen, the conversion efficiency (percentage of incident light energy converted to electrical energy) of the Nanosolar SPV cell is above 12 per cent for its first product prototypes. He claims that the Nanosolar SPV cell costs only $ 0.36 per peak watt.
The semiconductor paint can be applied to a flexible substrate , such as a polymer sheet , through a simple web printing process, to create an array of ultra-thin solar cells.
Nanosolar has developed proprietary substrate technology that keeps the substrate cost within a smaller fraction of the overall product cost than any other state-of-the-art thin-film solar cell technology. The company has also developed a powerful new way of interconnecting individual solar cells into larger modules and large-area sheets and allows high-throughput module assembly at high yield.
The flagship product, Nanosolar SolarPly, is a 14 feet x 10 feet solar electricity module delivering 120 watts per square inch at 110V. The company is now offering solar panels at below $1 per peak watt.
The Nanosolar team, headed by CEO Martin Roscheisen (listed by Fortune in 2003 among the top ten U.S. entrepreneurs below 40 years of age), has some top-notch Indian technologists assisting it.
Among them are Dr. Siva Sivaram (ex-Intel) and Dr. Arati Prabhakar , former Director of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
N.N. Sachitanand
Never see it...at least in this decade or the next. If you do, it will cost you an arm and a leg for however they package it.
Awesome!!!! Now all we have to do is eliminate nighttime and cloudiness, and we won't need dirty coal anymore!!!! Wow.
Already posted last month........
Oh yeah...we need one more thing...some State to volunteer to be covered with solar panels. Preferably a sunny one.
This article is more than a bit off. Solar radiation is only a kilowatt per square meter, not inch. When you factor that in the claims appear more than a bit exagerated.
Slashdot covered this a few days ago and there's lots of good solid info here: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/28/1224245&tid=162&tid=14
Let's cover the BLUE STATES in it........
It said they had some top-notch Indian scientists working on it. They must be damned good to squeeze 120 watts of electricity out of 0.64 watts of solar radiation!
Put them in orbit and call that that problem solved.
A large part of the cost of "real" solar generation is keeping the panels clean. Something they never tell you when they give fresh-out-of-the-box efficiency ratings.
Cleaning usually involves lots of water, something that can be in short supply in places where the sun is out a lot.
Not unless the sun went Super Nova
If we put the panels in orbit, how do we get the electricity down here to the surface? Microwaves? A long wire?
mark to read later
Several points:
1. That's why God made Batteries, or other power storage methods. Personally, I like reversible Fuel cells. . . add power, get hydrogen: need power, burn the hydrogen. . .
2. Coal is too valuable as chemical feedstock to burn as fuel anyway. . .
> This allows a 10x larger surface area of these structures to be used to achieve a 10x increase in efficiency for such thin layers
Ten times more efficient? Well, since PV cells can get to 30% efficiency or more, that means *these* cells get to 300% efficiency! WOW! Where do I invest?
Microwaves.
"Microwaves" is correct.
But, don't Blue Staters already live in those little world-of-their-own geodesic domes? Let's not waste our Natural Resources, LOL!
Well, I'm not sure God made batteries. Flywheels are fairly good at low-tech power storage. Hydrogen storage needs to be solved. Pumped hydro to elevated reservoirs...Compressed air into large caverns. The power storage problem goes on. Interesting though. I agree with you about coal as a feedstock. Personally, I think nuclear fission has the fewest technical issues to overcome, and has a proven track record as well.
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