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7th-Grader Designs Three Dimensional Solar Cell
Hugh Pickens writes "12-year-old William Yuan's invention of a highly-efficient, three-dimensional nanotube solar cell for visible and ultraviolet light has won him an award and a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. 'Current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light'" Yuan said. 'I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency.' Solar panels with his 3D cells would provide 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than cutting-edge 3D solar cells. 'My next step is to talk to manufacturers to see if they will build a working prototype,' Yuan said. "If the design works in a real test stage, I want to find a company to manufacture and market it.""
How do people that young get access to tools to build these things?
If his idea works as well stated in the article, the guy deserves more than "a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development." The fact that it's a seventh grader makes it even more astounding.
Proudly supporting the Libertarian Party.
I thought multi-layered solar cells which captured increasingly high energy photos were common. I thought there were clearly understood theoretical limits on conversion efficiency, and that it would not be remotely possible to get 500 times more light absorption than currently achieved. I'm extremely skeptical.
1) Write down kid's name 2) Buy stock in whoever picks him up 3) Profit! Hang on, I've got too many filled out steps...
"Furthermore...
OMG! Zerg Rush! KEKEKEKEKEKEKE"
apologies, i had to bring the discussion down to my iq level at his age
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
William Yuan's bright idea to create a new, more efficient solar cell earned him top honors as Oregon's only 2008 Davidson Fellow.
As part of the honor, the 12-year-old Bethany boy will be flown to Washington, D.C., for a reception Sept. 24 at the Library of Congress where he will receive his award and a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.
"William's work was evaluated by university professors and environmental scientists," said Tacie Moessner, Davidson Fellows program manager in a call from Reno, Nev. "They look for the project's potential to benefit society and make sure it is socially relevant. Generally, the projects need to be at the graduate level."
Yuan worked on his project for the past two years with the encouragement of his science teacher Susan Duncan; support of his parents Gang Yuan and Zhiming Mei; and counsel of professional mentors Professor Chunfei Li of Portland State University's Center for Nanofabrication and Electron Microscopy, Fred Li of Applied Materials Inc. and Professor Shaofan Li of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of California - Berkeley.
"He is our youngest fellow in science that we've ever had," Moessner said. "He is really spectacular.
"His project will really make a difference in advancing the technology of solar cells. You would never know he's 12 looking at the quality of his work."
Young talent
William Yuan is a seventh-grader in Meadow Park Middle School's Summa options program.
He is an active member of the school's Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Club, First Lego League team and participant in the Science Bowl and MathCounts programs. He is also a two-time, second-place chess champion for the state.
Recognizing his interest in science, math and engineering, Yuan's science teacher encouraged him to tackle a challenging engineering project for the Northwest Science Expo after introducing him to nanotechnology and renewable energy research.
"We learned about some great energy and environmental issues," Yuan said. "To try to help, I researched the application of nanotechnology and renewable energy.
"I felt they would best complement my background knowledge and experience. After extensive research and community outreach, I wanted to work on a project to find a solution for some of the problems of the world."
Yuan decided to focus his project on finding the most efficient way to harness the sun's energy.
"I felt solar energy had large potential but it was underused," he explained. "Fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas are only finite and are slated to run out by 2050.
"We need to make solar energy more cost effective and efficient."
With that thought in mind, Yuan got to work.
"Current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light," he said. "I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency."
Yuan invested countless hours in his research, seeking out new resources in the field to find a workable real-world solution.
"He has worked very hard in the past couple years," his father Gang Yuan said. "We're grateful that he had great mentors and teachers to guide him.
"When he started on his research, he had great curiosity and wanted to dig into it more. As his parents, we looked for experiences to help him."
Watching his dedication impressed William's parents.
"This generation's sense of urgency is much stronger than my generation's," his father said. "They are thinking about the future and want to know how environmental issues will impact their generation."
Promising future
Tapping into that talent and giving gifted youth the opportunity to excel is what the Davidson Institute is all about.
The national nonprofit organization recognized 20 students this year for their
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
> So does anyone know what 3d shape he used to achieve a 500x efficiency gain?
Since solar cells passed .5% with the first one, unless this kid attends Hogwarts this story is just this week's solar snake oil.
Democrat delenda est
You can't absorb more light than is there.
I'm not doubting that this is an idea with merit, but IIRC current PV cells are about 10% efficient, recent one being rather better. I can conceive (although I'd be skeptical) of a cell that captures 500% of the energy that similarly priced cells do, which would amount to 50% efficiency. That's seems almost too good to be true, but not nearly as impossible as getting 50x more energy out than the Sun puts in.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
being a jealous curmudgeonly skeptic, i have to ask: what are the careers of his parents?
i tend to observe suspicious correlations between kids that win science fairs and kids with parents that are scientists or engineers.
That is why kids are questioned without their parents present at science fairs.
It is not perfect, but it is sometimes hard to prove the difference between a parent who teaches their kid lots of science which puts there kid years ahead of their classmates, and a project that was simply done for them.
You wouldn't want to penalize someone who simply had scientific parents who are active in their kids education, would you?
In education (USA), kids with involved parents do better across the board because it is reinforced at home. This is sought after and encouraged in elementary/middle school education.
So TFAbstract suggests that conventional solar cells absorb less then 0.2% of the available light? I call big BS on that, it is not even energy conversion, just absorbtion. So his new toy may only be getting hot in the sun, not doing anything usefull.
Now on to the article itself, see if it was only the submitter or more that did not grasp physics.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Use of "fixed that for you" shall be considered proof that the user is a completely awesome badass.
fixed that for you.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
I call shenanigans. Current standard solar cells are more than 0.2% efficient, so a 500x improvement would capture more energy than the sun puts out.
While this could certainly improve the energy budget, it has the minor problem that it violates the laws of physics.
"Regular solar cells are only 2D and only allow light interaction once," he said.
If this means what I think it means, it would seem to indicate that he has worked out some type of translucent PV cell that allows him to either stack cells or to mirror the light to cause it to travel through multiple cells.
If you could create a translucent PV cell that still performed on par with today's leading PV cells, and you put it on top of a mirror, and then you put a semi-translucent mirror on top of the PV cell, you might be able to increase the efficiency of a single cell with out increasing the silicone. You'd still be losing some energy to heat, but from the lay-mans arm chair, it would seem to be worth a shot. And completely concievable as something a 12 year old who is good with math and science could figure out on paper (determine amount of energy input and the amount of energy transferred/lost to heat for each pass through the PV cell, and the reflection/refraction rates for the mirrors.
Anyway, that's my first thought after reading what scant details were mentioned.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
i lost to a chick who was performing live open heart surgery on rats
i didn't feel inadequate: my parents weren't high ranking research scientists who could get the authorization to let their children have the run of the university research facilities on weekends
and who i knows how much else her parents guided her through
its far more impressive to build an aerodynamic soap box derby car out of balsa wood than it is to turn the ignition on your dad's cessna
well, in terms of personal achievement that is
i'm not saying i'd rather play with balsa wood than a cessna ;-)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Is anybody else feeling really inadequate right now?
It is nothing but our own pride that insists that we are either the best in the world, or completely worthless.
There is a huge sliding grayscale of worthiness in the intellectual/industriousness domain.
The world needs a rich supply of people spread across that middle range.
In fact...the world needs the middlers more than it needs the geniuses. Given enough time the middlers can eventually get there on their own; the geniuses just accelerate the process a bit.
Once in a while a genius will do something that no number of middlers could ever have accomplished...which is nice...but once the genius has done it, the rest of us can follow suit. So, while we may need the occasional genius, we really don't need very many of them...whereas large numbers of middlers are the foundation of stable technological progress.
Drop the superego. Learn the value of who you already are, and be proud of it.
what about these guys?
They have been researching (and producing) cells like this for years; anyone see how they are different?
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
How does it qualify as "well played" to make the same blindingly obvious "joke" that I didn't think of?
Fixed that for you.
1) Develop 3d nanotube solar cell
2) Win science contest
3) Complete manufacturing tests
4) Manufacture
5) Become billionaire...
6) Jill Smith will like me! x0x0x
> 1) This absorbs both visible and UV light. Let's assume that's a factor of 2 improvement.
> 2) Although TFA fails to mention it, his cell is very large with ~250x the surface area of a traditional cell.
No, solar cells are typically judged based on the percentage of the energy hitting them that comes out the leads as usable electrical energy. Current cells already convery double digit percentages of the total energy hitting their surface so a 500x increase just isn't possible. But this is the eternal dream of the solar nuts that pops up on slashdot like clockwork every week or two, that some tech miracle will let us put solar cells on our roof and then we can do away with all that carbon based economy stuff because not only can we power our homes we can charge our tiny little scooters we will now call cars. Not happening, and anyone who can do math knows it because the energy density on a rooftop isn't enough, even with 100% efficiency which isn't going to be approached in our lifetime.
If you want to end the carbon economy and stop sending Sagan's of cash to people who want to cut our heads off there is only one short term solution. We need an Apollo type national commitment to building Nuke plants. Second we need to divert every research dollar available to fusion. And I mean EVERY available dollar. Freeze every other research at 75% of current dollars, AIDS, green tech, EVERYTHING included and start ramping up research on fusion just as fast as the projects can get vetted and construction underway. The only other research priority would be batteries. We know everything else about making a practical all electric vehicle.
Democrat delenda est
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Uh huh. Whether I thought of it or not is irrelevant. Fact of the matter is that this is far from the first time a person with a sense of humor has decided that my signature needs this particular treatment.
Fixed that for you.
The asian kids were the worst too. My asian high school co-valedictorian had to (I kid you not) be institutionalized after his first semester. His first week of college, his roommate physically kicked him out of his room because his intensity was too much to handle (he was the kind of guy who would snap your head off if you even spoke to him while he was studying). Then, shortly thereafter, he swung wildly in the other direction and became a full-blown alcoholic (not going to class at all).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It sounds like what got you the problem that almost nobody wants to learn in school any more, eh? Learn the value of being a prom queen who'll either marry a millionaire (stiff competition there, though) or be a waitress for the rest of your days, and be proud of that. Or learn to be value of being the jock who _might_ one day get lucky and get into a minor league sports team, but most likely will operate a gas pump or maybe unload crates at Wall-Mart.
Let's face it, in life you'll almost invariably hit lower than you aim. If you already aim low, you'll hit even lower. Starting from being nothing(*) and being proud and content with what you _already_ are (my emphasis) is a recipe for failure.
(*) and being mommy and daddy's "special" darling doesn't count there. If that's all you are and aim no higher, you'll eventually grow out of that and with _nothing_.
As for the middlers, I'll call bullshit on that feel-good fairy-tale. Historically the "middlers" were the guys ploughing the field and being plundered by both armies in a war. From the Roman Kingdom (yes, they were that before being a Republic, which they were before becoming an Empire) to some time during the 19'th century, that's what some 80% of the population was doing: the mind-numbingly boring task of walking behind a plough behind an ox or horse, holding onto the handles. Dawn to dusk. That's how the acre was even defined: how much a peasant can plough from dawn to dusk.
Add some miners, craftsmen, mercenaries and the like, and that accounts for even more people.
To even have the chance to be the guy who tinkers with a genius's ideas until they work, you had to be one of the most privileged 5% or less. The middlers were at best those guys kneading hides in dog shit (yes, that's how tanning worked) for the leather straps your invention needed. Or while those top few percent were busy inventing a better gun, the middlers were fermenting shit with piss to make saltpetre for that gun. Or while those top few were figuring out how to make a gothic cathedral (no mean feat, given the lack of even a mathematical notation you'd use these days), the middlers were hauling square slabs of rock for it. Stable contribution to technological progress of that middler gang: zero point zero.
Valuable contributions, nevertheless, but spare me the bullshit self-fellatio that such middlers were what caused stable technological progress.
Now I'm not saying you should go depressed about your skills or anything. But do aim higher, or you'll never improve. And spare us and yourself the bullshit story in which it's perfectly ok to be an underachiever and proud of it, and how such underachieving middlers had jack shit to do with technological progress.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The EM spectrum doesn't have ends; it makes no sense to speak of something converting "1% of the EM Spectrum". Sunlight is, to a decent approximation, a black-body spectrum at about 5778 K. Of the total radiant power, about 12% lies in the ultraviolet (wavelengths shorter than 400nm), about 37% is visible, and about 51% is infrared (wavelengths longer than 700nm). At the distance of Earth's orbit, before any absorption by the atmosphere, it has a power density of about 1,367 W/m^2 (this varies depending on the time of year due to Earth's orbital eccentricity).
A given solar cell will be able to convert a certain proportion of incident radiation to electrical power; this efficiency in general will vary as a function of the wavelength, so the total power produced will be the integral over the entire spectrum of that efficiency multiplied by the incident power at that wavelength. Thus, the efficiency may depend somewhat on the spectrum used. For real-world solar cells, efficiency varies from around 6% or so for the cheap ones in calculators and such up to 19% for high-end commercially available systems, and 40% for cutting-edge materials in the laboratory.
In brief, the claim that the technology referred to in the article can achieve a 500x efficiency improvement over existing solar cells is flagrantly incompatible with the first law of thermodynamics.
The key is large rocks and properly accelerating the cats.
If you pick a big enough rock, the problem of accelerating the cat takes care of itself. :)
Tweet, tweet.
if he could hammer an 8" spike through a board. Then he would have GF galore.
Not sure what that means, but I guarantee you that won't get you the kind of quantity and quality of cootch that millions of dollars of play money can. If that kid plays his cards right he could have said millions and will be drowning in top shelf snatch.
Well he is 12, so that would be illegal. I feel compelled to stand in on his behalf. This one time I will "take one for the team".