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New Solar Cells 20 Times Cheaper
handy_vandal writes "STMicroelectronics has announced a new generation of photocells made from organic plastics. Over a typical 20-year life span of a solar cell, a single produced watt should cost as little as $0.20, compared with the current $4. See also article @ cnn.com. On a related note, this article @ IEEE discusses new improved LED technology by the same team."
Eetimes.com.
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
Dr. Michael Gratzel (credited with pioneering the technology in the article) has a startup in Lowell, MA that has been working towards commercializing polymer based photovoltaics since 2001 called Konarka Technologies, and from what I understand from talking to them, they're almost done. I wonder if this involves some technology license, or if STMicro is going to beat Dr. Gratzel out the door with his own technology.
Excited.
Reading the article leaves you with a lot of "will, should, could" and no prototype.
And the $0.20 is a target to be reached, not an acheived goal.
What's Slashdot becoming, a free way to secure prior art against when companies actually has a patentable working model?
Grell
...when it gets down to fundamentals, do what you have to do and shed no tears. Dr. Matson in Tunnel in the Sky
See this company: http://www.spheralsolar.com/ their technology makes very cheap, very efficient, very flexible solar-cells... they are building a massive manufacturing facitliy as-we-type, they do small(er) runs currently in their original test/research facility.
this is one to watch.
This is not an announcement of any new solar cells. It's a press release detailing an advanced research program that STMicroelectronics hopes will eventually lead to cheap solar cells. RTFA whover posted this.
Well, they've not actually developed these cells yet, but here's why the need exists:
:) We'll call that the average because it won't usually put out 1W and yet it'll always produce at least some power. Therefore, said solar cell produces 8 Watt-hour's of energy each day.
Lets do the math.. We have $4 / watt for current generation solar cells which last 20 years..
Suppose that a "1 watt" solar cell can produce that 1 watt from 10am to 6pm each day (8 hours) in the average installation (unless you live in Pittsburgh or Seattle!
8Wh x 365 days x 20 years / (1000W / 1kW) = 58.4 kilowatt-hours during the lifespan of the cell.
$4 / 58.4 = $0.0685 / kWh
My local electric utility costs about $0.10 / kWh, making solar sound cheaper. However, the cost of the individual cells is only half the cost of a solar installation. Once you add in the cost of storage batteries, a charge controller, a high-efficiency DC->AC inverter, etc. now your solar installation is typically MORE expensive than the utility! And it's worse for the environment too with the silicon production chemicals, lead-acid batteries, etc. Yuck!
In contrast, if ST can even reach half their goal and produce $0.40 / watt cells, now we're looking at $0.00685 / kWh for the cells themselves. Even if battery storage technology is not improved by then, at least you can supplement your utility needs during the day at very minimal cost!
so what does a watt of electricy cost delivered these days, like from the power company?
A watt is a unit of power (energy per time). A watt-hour or kilowatt-hour (power times time) is a unit of energy. One kWh currently runs at around 8 cents, plus around roughly another 30% for taxes and equipment charges (depending on usage).
Bah you're thinking wrong....
generate electricity and run your electricity meter backwards during the day and consume at night.
Most solar power installations have no battery storage and simply pump electricity back to the grid (you get a special power meter from the power company that will run backwards... or sometimes a second meter to measure backflow)
what do you achieve? no power bill (net generated is always more than consumed so my credit hit's the cap of 200 dollar credit the power company has.. it get's consumed a bit in the winter (I live in michigan) but my highest electric bill was 2 winter's ago and I had to pay $30.00 for january... I was too lazy to clear snow off the panels.
the best part is that I force GREEN power down the throats of my neighbors and industry... they have to use my evil solar electricity that I pump back to the grid.
Now If 100 more people in my area do the same? you get a major drop in the need to generate electricity by the company... expand this to 20% of the residents here? you can forget about having to build a new power plant... the consumer is making your power now...
keep going and you see that solar power, if mandated in a city CAN make a gigantic difference...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
www.homepower.com is the place to start.
their magazine has all the details, and companies you need to contact about equipment...
as for a contractor? good luck... contractors know as much about solar as they know about tcp/ip networking..... I.E. nothing.
you will need an electrician that know solar if you dont have the ability... I did everything myself as I am comfortable with electrical wiring. all connections passed local inspection (I even had him inspect the low voltage that is not covered under building codes.. the inspector was lost though...)
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I made the same mistake at first,
but if you read the article carefully,
you'll see they aren't amortizing the price.
If STMicroelectronics can reach their target,
that 75 watt panel would cost fifteen bucks.
(But probably $115 with the mounting hardware.)
When you amortize the cost,
they're hoping to produce electricy for 1/4 cent per kilowatt hour.
Even at five times the price it's cost competitive with fossile fuel generation (unlike current solar panels.)
-- this is not a
I've worked in the Conductive Polymers area for about a year and I can tell you that this article seems more of wishful thinking than any. Conductive polymers are exceedingly difficult to work with, have a very narrow range of pH under which they work, their properties have not been sufficiently characterized and so on. The replacement of liquid electrolytes sounds exceedingly difficult if not impossible to me, atleast from my experience.
All that aside, $.20 per peak watt is freaking incredible. At that price you can probably make electric awnings out of the stuff. Let's just hope that this doesn't turn out to be vaporware like so many other stunning "advances" in energy have turned out to be (coughcold fusioncough)
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist