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Solar Cells Get Boost
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory have tapped the efficiencies of nanotechnology to double solar cells' potential energy production. The key to the method is the use of lead selenium nanocrystals which can produce 2 electrons where 1 was produced before. Other optical applications can also benefit."
The article seems to imply that the technique would be applicable to existing materials, but also seems to imply that it has only been show to work for lead-selenium nanocrystals. So will the technique of using nanocrystals work with other materials? If not, will incorporating the lead-selenium nanocrystals in a matrix of conventional material, nanocrystal-sized or otherwise, generate two electrons/photon? And finally, does the cost of making the nanocrystals make the whole thing not cost effective, other perhaps in something like spacecraft, where every once saved is of tremendous worth?
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for every time I heard about cheaper, more efficient solar cell, I could buy a solar powered calculator. Which is just about all I've seen solar power be good for at the consumer level.
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Solar cells harness engergy by absorbing photons, which cause electrons in an atom (which are already there) to move to a higher energy state. This technique moves two electrons per photon, rather than one. The point I am making is simply that electrons are being moved, and not created. That would have amazingly different implications, as that would be creating matter from the energy in a single photon, which would only work with very high energy photons.
This is it folks, this is what we've been waiting for. As it is, solar panels are a pretty marginal energy source for most applications. We've all seen the specially built vehicles that are basicly a big solar panel on wheels (some of us (like me) have even built one). We've all seen the houses with the roof covered in solar panels and they still have to buy all whacky expensive 12v high efficiency appliances and forget about an electric drier. With solar cells like these, solar power just lept from impractical to practical. Make way for the days of solar powered PDAs and cell phones, cars, houses, buses, airplanes, you name it. This is the breakthrough that will lead the way. Unless it flops, of course.
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Earth is bad for the environment. It contains lethal amounts of lead, selenium. Dangerous amounts of dihydrogen oxide (which kills many thousands a year) have accumulated on its surface.
I think you're trying to make a funny, but in case you aren't... They are nano crystals. That probably means that while they're made from lead, there still isn't much lead in each cell. Also, solar cells can easily last for 100 years, it's not like they're disposable. Not to mention the fossil fuels they displace.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
See the problem is this article made no mention of Linux or how evil Microsoft is. This is /. after all. If you want to get more posts, make a comment about how Microsoft's new OS is going to natively support solar sell power management and that Linux needs to create another Sourceforge project to provide it for free.
I think the majority of the people not lurking and posting are people who actually feel passionate about free energy. I am just waiting for a Linux geek touting that he is running a Beowolf Cluster on 100% solar power.
It is indeed a shame that more interest in this technology doesn't exist. The lack of responses to this article is pretty disappointing, especially since I would think /.ers would be one of the main supporters. Doubling the output of cells is a definite improvement.
I remember reading somewhere (IIRC one of the Real Goods Source Books) that had the phrase similar to "Solar Panels will never become widely accepted until they are available from your local Home Depot." This definitely rings true. Aside from the solar powered walkway lights (total garbage), they have very little to offer there. Solar Cells need to be cheaper and more powerful if people are going to use them.
It's good to see that progress is being made, though, as this article describes. Perhaps one day it will indeed become practical to use solar panels. Until then, we're stuck with calculators.
From what I can tell there not manufacturing solar cells using "lead selenium nanocrystals" but rather they found a method of detecting "impact ionization" via the delay between the photon impact and electron emissions. They then tested several substances and discovered that lead selenium nanocrystals produced impact ionization on close to 100% of photon impacts.
So if you really want to know what's going on you need to discover how efferent lead selenium solar cell's are and what it takes to mass produce lead selenium nanocrystals in a cheep long lasting solar cell.
So it's a long way from producing 60+% efficient solar cells but it's still cool.
All true, but it in no way invalidates the grandparent post -- sillier things than that have drawn the ire of environmentalists.
On a more reasonable note, remember that the manufacturing processes for many "green" technologies are themselves polluting and producing dangerous and toxic byproducts.
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Renewable energy has made phenomenal leaps, but the storage restriction is the crux. Efficiency is great, and is a move in the right direction. What remanins is the development of efficient and economical storage devices. Imagine your car operating for a week on a one hour solar charge stored in a device the size of 4 D sized batteries.
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You do realize that you don't see the point? This isn't an article about energy storage, it's an article about energy generation. Fuel cells are great, how do they relate to the article?
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
There's at least one user in California who got on a time-of-day net-metering rate program and installed a bunch of solar panels on his garage roof. His panels are cranking out watts during all of the high-rate hours (afternoon), and he gets credited at the retail rate. At night he charges his electric truck off the grid, and pays for those KWH at the off-peak rate. It's win/win; his panels pay for themselves, and the utility needs less peaking capacity.
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If we get really lucky, this technology will work well at high light flux and high temperatures (~100 C). This would allow use of concentrating collectors and use of the waste heat for space heat and domestic hot water, multiplying the benefit of the collector and making the whole affair much more economical. Imagine a house that powers its own appliances, stores enough hot water for several days of hot showers and its own heating load, and on sunny days has plenty of juice left over to feed to electric cars. This house would be almost completely independent of fossil fuels and offset fuel use elsewhere, and I'll bet that we could build it now if cost was no object - if we can get 50% or even 40% efficient solar cells at $2/watt working at 100 C, we'll be there.
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
- Vast reduction in cost of electrical power
- reduction in demand for coal products to approx. 5% of current usage due to solar plants supplying grid (excess produced by nuclear);
- immense pressure to develop better batteries for use by cars;
- demand for tech to turn electrical power plus (whatever) ingredients into natural gas (cars powered by methane emit only CO2, not other nasty stuff, plus infrastructure there - existing cars can run on natural gas for $300 conversion kit);
- vast diminishment of political and economic wealth of many arab and persian) nations plus Russia, Venezuela, and some african countries;
- vast reduction in demand for hydro power in Northwest, hydro dams that are not useful for irrigation & flood control are torn down;
- home power kits still possible, but since 50% of cost of off-grid solar-cell electrical is electronics (not the cells), this isn't a major factor for most people;
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The best planning can be done after the project completes.
Although it sounds fine, it really is a problem for the power companies; retail rates not only include generation costs, but the huge effort that goes on in transmission and load balancing. To be realistic, this sort of metering should be generation costs only.
One which never wears out. Compress air up to 300 or more atmospheres. It's much much cheaper to buy a pressure vessel than it is to buy batteries which hold an equivalent amount of energy and far far more efficient than electrolysis. Most useful for stationary purposes, generators etc due to the size and weight of the pressure vessel. (in fact you're using heat to store the energy)
P.S. Battery powered cars have been able to run for 250, 300 miles for a good 7 years or so with a battery life of around 100,000 miles. That's with NiMH batteries. With lithium ion or even better, lithium sulphur batteries they should be able to travel further than a petrol driven car. (Google for Solectria Sunrise and Solectria Force)
P.P.S. why do Americans call petroleum, gas? It's a liquid at ambient temperatures...
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But energy generation crosses into energy storage. His point was that you could use a hydrogen fuel cell as a way of collecting and storing solar energy while your car is not in use. Most people only drive a few hours per day. The rest of the day their car sits.
:-/
Now there simply isn't enough energy in sunlight to power a car with solar panels. (If there was, we'd all be crispy critters.) But if you can store that energy up over a period of time, you can make your car much more efficient, perhaps even independent of fueling stations.
It's a nice thought anyway. Until you realize that a large portion of the cars get stored in garages.
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Just because he doesn't fit the profile of the average consumer does not mean that he is not a general consumer; he doesn't have any billing arrangements that are not available to everyone else.
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
Canadian Tire doesn't sell 2x4s but they do sell other building supplies and tools apart from car stuff.
Go here and enter SOLAR as the keyword. (enter postal code: K1J 1J8)
I found this:
45W Cottage Solar Panel Kit
Special Offer
Product# 11-1588-0
View larger image
Price $499.99
Availability
In Store Online
Qty.
*
Harness the sun's power to run small appliances (both AC and DC) such as TVs, lights, computers and to recharge your 12V DC batteries in your RV, boat or cottage. The 45-watt Cottage Solar Panel Kit is completely weather-resistant and works under all light conditions.
* Ideal for charging deep-cycle batteries and running small appliances
* ICP solar panels are completely weatherproof and can withstand 1/2" hailstones, up to 80C (176F) heat and can operate under 3" of snow (on sunny days)
* Works under all light conditions
* Kit includes three 15W solar panels
* Can run both AC and DC appliances
* Comes complete with 7A charge controller, ultra-bright fluorescent light and 140W DC to AC power inverter
* Includes 12V socket with 10' (3m) of wire, PVC frame, mounting hardware and battery clamps
* Manufacturer's limited 5-year warranty on power output
* Model No. 10058
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If fewer neanderthals would whine "if it's so good, why isn't everyone doing it", more people would do it. And we'd get further out of the doomed hole we've dug with our paleolithic energy economy.
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