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Bigger, Cheaper Solar Cells
Phenombecile800 writes "First Solar, a start-up from Arizona, is making photovoltaic cells at a fraction of the usual cost. Their secret: increasing the light-catching area 'from postage-stamp to traffic-sign dimensions,' reducing the manufacturing time to 1/10th of the competition's, and thinning the active element to 1/100th the usual thickness over a glass substrate, which enables the production of large panels. IEEE Spectrum provides some technical details about the production process. 'Glass is placed on rollers and fed into the first chamber, where it is heated to 600 C. Then it is transferred into the second chamber, which is full of cadmium sulfide vapor, formed by heating solid CdS to 700 C. The vapor forms a submicrometer deposit on the glass as it moves through this cloud, after which a similar process in a third chamber adds a layer of micrometers-thick CdTe in about 40 seconds. Then a gust of nitrogen gas rapidly cools the panels to 300 C in a fourth chamber, strengthening the material so that it can withstand hail and high winds.'"
First of all, thirteen cents of every dollar you spend on gasoline goes directly to the Federal Government. That is hardly aiding the petroleum industry.
Second, getting the Federal Government involved in encouraging commuting and public transportation? The results might be as good as our public education system! The real question is why the Federal Government has prohibited offshore drilling for so long when any such law is clearly unconstitutional via the 10th Amendment. It's not the Federal Government's job (assuming you adhere to the Constitution, of course) to use force to make people use a certain kind of energy.
Its = possessive. It's = "it is"
> Yet Another Solar Cell Story.
Yup, it has replaced fusion as the tech that is always about twenty years away from being the Next Big Thing.
These days I doubt fusion would be greeted as a good thing unless somebody went straight to Mr. Fusion and there would still be die hard Greens trying to regulate or outlaw it just because of fear.
Of course what wouldn't be stated would be exactly what the fear was, they fear us finding a sustainable energy source they can't control to reduce total energy use by humans. Because in the end they will object to ANY energy source that doesn't result in humans living a reduced energy lifestyle because they have a religious belief that humans ARE the problem. Just wait, there have already been attempts to regulate large solar installations in the desert on environmental grounds, when large installations actually get ready for construction the legal groundwork to delay and control will be firmly in place.
Democrat delenda est