Solar Cells — Made In a Pizza Oven

stylemessiah writes "The winner of several Eureka Science Awards in Australia is a crafty chick who devised a way to create solar cells cheaply using a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer. This was developed to address the high cost of cells and in particular for the world's poorest regions. She wanted to give the ~2 billion people around the world who don't have electricity the gift of light and cheap energy. This could have profound (and a good profound) implications for education and health in those in the poorest regions in the world. And it all started with her parents giving her a solar energy kit when she was 10..."

Comments

For those who like to watch...

[serps]

For those who like to watch:

Nominee video of Nicole Kuepper

Vodcast of People's Choice awards ceremony (Look for ep 26, 2008)

Pity they did not print the details

[Ancient_Hacker]

If you do a little digging, you find there is far less to this story than you might think.

All the lady did is develop a simple way of printing electrical contacts onto the silicon surface.

That's a mighty small part of the overall cell's cost. It's not going to bring cell prices down so the "2 billion" can afford them. heck, the top 2 billion can't afford them.

Re:how many

[Andy Dodd]

In addition to that, the oven could be modified to either be fully heated or at least preheated by a solar concentrator.

Solar thermal is a LOT cheaper and easier than solar photovoltaic. The problem is that concentrator-based designs can't work in clouds, while PV and nonconcentrated can. Nonconcentrated thermal doesn't work well for electrical energy generation. (Great for hot water heating though.)

Re:how many

[Emb3rz]

1. If you've ever stood near a pizza oven (a typical one, which is what this method will utilize), you know that no little amount of energy is lost into the surrounding area. In both places that I've worked in which Pizza was made, the room containing the oven wouldn't drop below 99F unless the oven was actually turned off.
2. You truly expect that this new production method would take so long to complete? Or do you simply believe that the solar panels have the lifespan of a fruit fly?
3. The economic feasability of this hinges on whether what you expend is greater than what you receive. The point of the project was to distribute cheap/free solar panels to other countries. You cannot achieve said 'cheap/free' if you're taking a substantial net loss in producing them. Therefore, in a very short way, I proposed that the culmination of steps 1 and 2 would be that the oven would run entirely on sustainable free energy. The moment you begin to collect more energy than you're using, you have a net gain that can begin even to offset maintenance costs. In this way, a single oven could be made to operate 'free.' This would strongly contribute to the aforementioned economic feasability and as such would make it very possible to reach the intended goal, of deploying these panels to other countries that need them.

I know, don't feed the trolls. Sorry.

Re:Right...

[NeverVotedBush]

Got Paranoia?

A patent helps her to be able to control her vision.

What if she was to license some big corporation and use the proceeds to fund her own humanitarian projects?

You have no clue what she will do with that patent. Also, you should also consider that most places bind employees, students, and professors to allow the company/university to patent discoveries. It could very easily be that for her to not cooperate in the patent process could make her legally liable for damages to the university where she is a student.

I know that everywhere I have either been a graduate student or been employed, there have been contracts regarding patentable ideas and how they are handled, what cooperation is required, and how royalties (if any) will be divided.

You need to give this gal a break until you actually see her do something evil. The fact that she has a patent probably only means she fulfilled her legal obligation to the university.

Re:Chick?

[Chineseyes]

And it is odd that we make special note of achievement when a 'minority' does something. For some reason we care that [person] is the first [label] to do something. If a white guy does something, so what? If it is novel that someone of x group did something, like say, a child composing a concerto, then sure... mention away. Otherwise i think by now we as a culture should be over it. Never underestimate the power of guilt. Tell that to:

Justin Timberlake (R&B)
Jeremy Wariner (400m Sprinter)
Eminem (Rap)

All of those are white men who are doing things that would be considered ordinary for a black man but is considered amazing due to the fact that they are white.

People in general are fascinated by things that appear to be out of the ordinary even when they are not.