Still some hitches, but this looks like a breakthrough. .
www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1329/
80% Efficient Solar Panel?! Works at Night?!
The most expensive, carefully designed, and complicated solar panels in the world operate at about 40% efficiency. That means that, for every bit of sunlight that hits the panel, only 40% of it is turned into electricity.
Scientists think that this is just about as good as silicon panels can do and are now looking at ways to make it cheaper, instead of making them more efficient. But suddenly, from nowhere, comes Steven Novack of the Idaho National Laboratories with an inexpensive, foldable solar panel that may turn out to be up to 80% efficient.
The trick is nanotechnology. The surface of the material is printed with miniscule nano-antennae that capture infra-red radiation, the kind that the sun puts out in abundance, and is even available at night. Television antennas absorbe large wavelength energy, so in order to absorb ultra-small wavelength energy (photons) they had to create ultra-small antennas.
The material is fairly simple to create, and scientists are confidient that it would scale easily out of the laboratory. But there is a bit of a hitch: There's currently no way to capture the energy being created.
So while there are electrons pouring out of the nano-antennas when exposed to the sun, there is no way to capture those electrons. But don't worry, those geniuses in Idaho are working on that already. By putting a tiny capacitor, or AC/DC converter in the center of every tiny tiny antenna, they think they could make this new kind of solar panel export all that energy it's created without raising the price, or lowering the efficiency too much.
the efficiency is Watt / dollar
this thing is made from gold (hard to believe, will be cheaper)
>The material is fairly simple to create, and scientists are confidient that it would scale easily out of the laboratory.
this is an encouraging statement. . .these sort of developments are
useful even when they don't exactly pan out.
they are adding to the sum total of knowledge and at
some point a scientist will see a pattern that fits
together and suddenly it will all fall into place.
th gold price go up internationally
3 time then a year ago
but silica is just a sand
oil is dirty, but. .
sand is clean,
unless cats get in.
someday sand makes
solar, worth more than
dirty oil, stained with blood. . .
the gold one, work only for air-space, where is need high power and low weight
no matter the price
nations with oil have much gold
also sun. . .they can!!
is, or was a French rapper whose mommy and daddy are from Chad
But, yes nanotech has made great strides in the photovilatic arena. I have posted a bunch of shit from foresight, but yeah nano nano nano.
What about an idea of using "CVD diamond" technology or rather vapor deposition?
Some talk of using CVD films for making Higher efficiency photovoltaic cells
www.cet.nau.edu/~tdh28/proposal.pdf
www.freepatentsonline.com/6541695.html
I was reading somewhere else where someone proposed making a road with CVD technology, and the road is used to soak up the great rays. The cool thing is that since the road would be made with CVD technology, it would also be a stronger road. This is however a theory.
yankee ingenuity is the only way to get out of the hole we are in. . .
petrochemical addiction has got to go. . .
i'd rather be driving some real steel made in the 60s, but until
cheap hydrogen comes along, that's just not in our future. .
The first electric boats are already crossing the Atlantic using solar only technology.
Hybrids, solar/sail will be kicking ass in the industry within ten years.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18571845/
the rate of development is a function of cost and
cost is a function of r&d investment. . .
we have to make it a national priority and throw
some big money at it ( intelligently of course )
the sad thing is that we could have been there
already. . .i do think that the battery technology
that gm developed has to be pried away from
chevron. . .they are just sitting on it. .
<solar/sail>
It is so crazy how much sci-fi stuff is getting to the market.
It is cool but you have to worry about the amount of energy absorbed breaking down all those nano-antennas. This is going to be part of the cost of running the new black into a solar panel -- the intense heat. Also there's the chance the military will buy the chemical process that makes the stuff due to it's radar absorbing capability . . . unless the military wants to blow all their tracking technology on trying to knock down a 'cheap' stealth rocket. That will end up making the product a political issue and liable to get bogged down by lobbyists.
Probably it's a 50/50 chance of the product ever getting mass-produced in the next twenty years
I think using parabolic reflectors to heat a stirling engine is the best chance for solar to succeed on the home market. That and Spyrogyra algae farms to produce oil for the trucking and rail industry.
it is encouraging that there are several technologies emerging.
i think the real issue is removing the oil company barriers
to adoption of these new technologies. . .
<it is encouraging that there are several technologies emerging.
i think the real issue is removing the oil company barriers
to adoption of these new technologies>
well said
interesting technology.
efficiency isnt nearly as compelling as price if you want to change the energy marketplace.
think about it. would the market be more likely to adopt a 1% efficient cell that costs 1 penny, or a $900 40% efficient cell? price always wins.
