New Photovoltaics Made with Titanium Foil

Memorize writes "A company called Daystartech has released a new type of photovoltaic cell which, unlike almost all the cells currently in use, does not silicon. This is based on a thin titanium film. Given the current shortage of solar-grade silicon, and all-time high oil prices, maybe titanium solar panels are here at the right time. The questions are, will they release it as a consumer solar product, and what will be the price per kilowatt hour?"

Comments

Solar cells from biology

[Bifurcati]

At University of Queensland (in Australia) where I study, we're developing solar cells out of "solid solids" - flexible polymers/plastics. The hope is that as well as being even more efficient, they'll be easy to use - they're flexible, and can be bent, twisted, shaped, etc.

One possibility is to use melanin - the skin pigment that gives our skins colour. Being in Australia, of course, researching melanin is of significant interest to us! It's yet another example of biology helping to make really cool physics - more details are available on UQ's physics blog.

Re:This has all been gone over before...

[TFoo]

Umm, I could be missing something, but your initial statement that "Photoelectric won't work, won't solve even a small fraction of our power needs, not remotely" seems to be completely wrong.

A quick Google search shows that on earth every square meter receives about 4.2kwh of energy per day over a 24 hour period.

A quick look at my electric bill says I use about 20kwh/day as a rough average -- another Google search suggests that the average US household uses approximately 25kwh/day

...So, finishing the math: using 15% efficiency solar cells, the Average US Household needs only 40 square meters (430 square feet) of solar cells to cover all its energy needs. Heck, I could use 5% solar cells on my roof in downtown San Francisco, and STILL have 2x extra capacity to sell back to the grid!

Don't get me wrong: Solar won't solve everything, particularly in applications like transportation where energy storage is an issue --- and cheap Fission IS something we should have figured out a long time ago --- but please don't resort to misinformation to make your points, it only weakens what you are saying.

Re:Slicon Shortage

[K8Fan]

Took some serious hitting with a sledge hammer and a vice to put any kind of a bend in the metal. Impressive stuff.

Want to see something really cool? Check out "Liquidmetal". It's an alloy of titanium and other metals and has some really amazing properties. For one, it can be cast and does not form crystals like titanium, has a low melting tempature compared to it's component metals - it can actually be injection-molded. It's twice as strong as titanium by weight and much more flexible. There's a bounce-test video on their web site that it a hoot.

Right now it's being used for the hinges in that new Motorola Razor phone, various sporting goods and military applications. Cool stuff.