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Spheral Solar Technology Approaching Reality
CactusMan writes: "A technology previously owned by Texas Instruments and then Ontario Hydro, Spheral Solar Technology is 'a low-cost alternative [to conventional solar cell technologies] involving flexible, lightweight solar cells comprised of thousands of tiny silicon spheres in an aluminum foil, which can be "formed and applied to virtually any curved or flat surface."' Automated Tooling Systems has just received $29.5 million (Canadian) to bring the technology to commercial viability. Read the article here or go directly to the Spheral site."
I've always dreamed of travelling to the sun in a sphere.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
A billion geeks walking around in aluminum foil hats powering their wearable electronic tools and toys.
So why didn't Orwell see that one?
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
What's the time to market for a cap with a solar powered beanie propeller?
I searched up and down on the site and found some really cool stuff. It's very light and very durable, but no specs. Normally when someone talks about a new solar panel, they mention the efficiency. I'm worried it might be really low, so they hid it.
I've been wishing for low cost solar panels all my life.
'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
In that case, read "Sundiver" by David Brin. Good book, first of the first Uplift Trilogy. (Though IMHO the second book, "Startide Rising" was better, and the third, "The Uplift War" was somewhat weak.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
if they aren't as efficient as conventional cells, if they are a lot cheaper to produce, and more durable, useful in more environments, etc.... then it works out.
The problem isn't so much the efficiency of current cells as it is the cost.
The stupid thing about PV research is that more money gets put into chasing the percentages with wierd compounds rather than trying to achieve something that is useful.
The Aussies have the solar challenge - a showcase for PV. Unfortunately, again, the focus is on spending bazzillions of dollars in making expensive cars - which does not help make PV a real-world energy solution.
They use the concept of tons of silicon per megawatt. They say this tech uses 9 tons per megawatt, and hope to get it dowm to 2. Normal PV panels use 20 to 40 tons per megawatt, so if energy consumption is proportional to the silicon used, these are a BIG imrovement.
Smoking is an expensive, slow, and unreliable method of suicide.
High efficiency, high cost PV cells are useful, in two applications: (1) on spacecraft, and (2) in concentrator systems with high (500x, say) concentration factors. For the latter you want to get as much energy as you can to defray the cost of the optics and tracking hardware, so you want the PV cells to be as efficient as possible (and since the concentration is so high you can afford to spend a lot per unit cell area.)
Gallium arsenside is also useful in space because it can be made much thinner (hence, lighter) than silicon, and because it doesn't lose efficiency so quickly as it gets hot (for spacecraft on solar orbits bringing them closer to the Sun than 1 AU).
Just as important as the amount of silicon is the kind of silicon. Metallurgical grade silicon is much cheaper than semiconductor grade silicon. IIRC, the spheral technology tolerates lower grade silicon -- when the silicon solidifies in the little spheres the impurities tend to concentrate on an outer layer, which they grind away.
... or were there others that thought there was spelling error in the title?
/. too long :-)
I have been on