Slashdot Mirror
Breakthrough in solar photovoltaics
An anonymous reader writes "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. " As always, take these claims with a dose of salt the size of the Hope Diamond.
Yes we can. However it would be called "rooftop"
then - the article lists the size of 120 watt panel as 14 feet by 10 feet.
You'll get a really large screen though.
"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." Even more exciting, the raw material used in this process is snake oil.....
Before anyone questions the unimpeachable reputation of "The Hindu" - "Online Edition of India's National Newspaper", please keep in mind that they've brought significant news to us in the past.
How many of us would not be alive today had they not warned us about mysterious monkeymen?
I'm a big tall mofo.
Of course, even with THAT large of a screen, there'll still be people who INSIST on using 800x600
Not too good with reverse-logic, are we?
The reference is to a grain of salt because, with just a grain of salt, one wouldn't eat much of what's being served.
To take something with a dose of salt "the size of the Hope Diamond", well, one could conceivably eat the whole thing -- wait for it... -- hook, line and sinker.
This isn't snake oil. They have pictures up here.
Philip
Signatures are broken
Stock-pumping, perhaps? Hell, I'd buy. But then again I get all my stock tips from Slashdot.
Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules.
Indeed. If only we had some means of moving electricity from one place to another.
Seriously, solar power is ridiculously overrated. The energy density of sunlight at the earth's surface is simply too low to be practical. Way too much real estate would have to be used to make any realistic amounts of power, and at those scales, upkeep becomes prohibitively expensive.
And how, precisely, do you propose to deliver this power to the earth's surface?
NOTICE: This notice will appear at the bottom of all my slashdot posts.
No, that's correct - it is 120 watts per square inch. What they don't tell you is that you have to install a 300 foot diameter magnifying glass over your house.
Also, the AG has written the binding opinion that anyone trying to exploit technology supposed developed by NanoSolar, Inc. would be open to physical coersion up to and probably including limb removal that would not legally be considered to be torture.
Go about your business. Nothing to see here.
Perhaps they are using really big inches?
Kinda like the opposite of what us men do.
liqbase
Oh, inches, meters, whatever.
This isn't rocket science. It's economics.
You need irrational enthusiasm among investors to make this kind of thing work.
Shhh!
Don't tell the plants. If they find out that sunlight is impractical as a power source, we'll be in a real pickle, a real pickle, I tell ya'
How about nuclear power plants in the stratosphere, supported by a helium floating device?
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
- then where exactly are you going to get your solar power? From glow-in-the-dark stickers left on your ceiling? I don't think so! Or maybe you'll just burn lots of dead plants to make light... still not very efficient....
As always, take these claims with a dose of salt the size of the Hope Diamond.
Slashdot
Hearsay for nerds. Stuff that never happens.
This sounds like the kind of mistake made by somebody who's used to working with the metric system writing down the wrong name for unfamiliar foreign antique measurement systes, rather like most of us tend to misread things measured in pecks per square furlong or whatever.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Arizona, Oregon, Washington and other midwestern states
Is this some strange new definition of the "midwest" or something?
Someone else will claim that despite how the numbers may work out, solar power will always be for hippies.
Don't solar panels produce heat as a by-product?
So does the sun...
Required reading for internet skeptics