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New Record For Solar Cell Power Efficiency
mdsolar writes "Renewable Energy Access is reporting that a consortium led by researchers at the University of Delaware has achieved 42.8% efficiency with a silicon solar cell. The method uses lower concentration (factor of 20 magnification) than the previous record holder (40.7% efficiency) so that it may have a broader range of applications, since tolerances for pointing the device will be larger. They are now partnering with DuPont to build engineering and manufacturing prototypes. They expect to be in production in 2010. On a roof, such cells would require less than half the surface area to produce the same amount of power as today's standard solar panels, which have an efficiency of about 17%."
Hopefully, Solar Cell efficiency will keep ahead of smog cover in major cities.
Never play chicken with a passive aggressive.
Im waiting for them to reach above 100% efficiency before I'll buy
Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
that renewable sources of energy are a good thing.
why?
because my HOA (home owners association) does not permit them. As such it would take State or local laws to override the HOA; because in many States the HOA rules have strong legal backing at the State level.
This is akin to the problems satellite TV faced in many locales. There were numerous ordinaces, both at the HOA and local level which blocked satellite dishes. Even the small ones we are accustomed to today were blocked. It took a Federal Law to end that restriction. Unfortunately its going to take another such law to allow many of us to use renewable energy. Hell, I cannot even get rain barrels approved even though they would not be visible from the street.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
...than price per watt. We got plenty of space we can cover with solar cells so it's not important that they are extremely efficient, just cheap enough so it doesn't cost much to cover large areas.
I looked into this recently. Installing a ground based heat pump instead of a regular air conditioner would have been around $6K (instead of $2K for the AC). Note that this was for an old style 12 SEER AC unit that's no longer available against a 25+ SEER heat pump (get added bonus of generating heat). AC units have almost doubled in cost, and now are about $4500 installed (new US regulations require higher SEER units).
Why didn't I get the ground based system? Because when it's over 100 F and your main AC unit dies, I couldn't wait for the ground based unit installation taking over a week. I will plan for one at my next house though.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
These are *VERY* wise words!
Instead of making more money, people could work less. Instead of buying all sorts of shit, people could do much cleaner things such as talking, writing, riding a bike, going to a brothel, taking a walk, singing, playing a part on a play, painting, fighting (if not pushed too far it is not necessarily bad for some people...).
It is way too simplistic to say that there is a law of nature that says we will end up using every resource available. We are supposed to be rational beings even if we often do stupid things. One of the things of being rational (or partly rational) is that we can choose what we do. We don't simply answer any call of the wild (even if there is such a thing).
We are changing from a production society to a consumer one. We are becoming a bunch of morons that just sit and receive stuff. Not very different from the Eloi in H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. I don't think just consuming is satisfying enough. It is much easier (and faster) just to watch a movie than it is to tell a story and we end up watching 10 movies. Maybe a little boredom is good for creativity. It certainly is much cleaner than riding a car 100 km to do anything "new".
Hi,
I will try to put a summary to the interested folks around:
A photovoltaic system is composed today by:
- Module
- Inverter DC/AC
- Mounting system
- Cabling
- Measuring/Protection electrical stuff
Most of the cost today is the module. Systems go (net) for 4-5$/Watt.
More efficient cells (and modules) mean less installation costs. For the future, it will be important since cell and module prices will go down.
Today, in California, if you take a system lifetime of 25 years, the kWh equivalent "price" is about 25-30cent.
System price decrease is expected to be 5-10% yearly for the next 5-10 years at least. This means that very soon the PV power will be cheaper than the one sold by the utility.
PV systems are perfect for distributed energy: a centralized power plant is not really cheaper or more efficient than a 5kW roof installation. And the energy transport kills the small margin that you had in favour of the big thing. That is why most utilities are not hot about PV: it is against their business model.
For the moment, it is not cheap to get "disconnected" from the grid. Therefore, a mix of PV and other electricity is necessary. PV has a nice peak at max. consumption peak. However, the evening consumption must be covered otherwise. Wind, biomass, ocean waves, geothermal, whatever.
PV in order to charge e-cars is OK today already. A car that uses 10 liter to do 100km, at a 20kW mean power, is using 20kWh energy for 10 liter gas, at 1$/liter it would be 50 cent/kWh. Make the calculation with your local gas price/gallon and you see that, even today, it is competitive. And cleaner. Only e-cars are not yet developed/deployed as they need to be.
About Solar-thermal energy for cold- it works for mid-big sized equipments, it is cheaper and especially more reliable than electricity... PV supporting electrical AC is still a bit more expensive but both run a nice race.
Ah, the typical guy asks about energy payback times: depending on technology, after 1-4 years your system has produced the energy needed to make it. Longer times belong to PV prehistory and to right-wing-thinktank analysis.
Cheers!