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Nanopillar Solar May Cost 10x Less Than Silicon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hot-off-the-presses dept.

Al writes "A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new kind of flexible solar cell that could be far cheaper to make than conventional silicon photovoltaics. The cells consist of an array of 500-nanometer-high cadmium sulfide pillars printed on top of an aluminum foil — the material surrounding the pillars absorbs light and releases electrons, while the pillars themselves transport the electrons to an electrical circuit. The closely packed pillars trap light between them, helping the surrounding material absorb more. This means the electrons also have a very short distance to travel through the pillars, so there are fewer chances of their getting trapped at defects and its possible to use low-quality, less expensive materials. '"You won't know the cost until you do this using a roll-to-roll process," says lead researchers Ali Javey. "But if you can do it, the cost could be 10 times less than what's used to make [crystalline] silicon panels."'"

2 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Sarah Pallin In 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Wrapped in nothing but aluminum foil for solar: Very disgusting.

    Yours In Democracy,
    Kilgore Trout

    1. Re:Sarah Pallin In 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Yeah, How dare that bitch do or say ANYTHING! She and her retard baby which she should have aborted right after getting knocked up should just get herself a katana from Japan, which I am sure she can see from her house. Then she should sit her fat smug arse down next tot he car seat with Twig or Tig or whatever the retard baby's name is and in one swift stroke plunge the katana into bother her and her idiot son's belly allowing their entrails to spill out onto the cold, melting, tundra. She is worse than Hitler with all of the death camps she setup in Alaska for those wolves. Bitch should do the whole country a favor and dispatch herself and then float out to sea on a melting ice flow, if we are lucky she can feed a drowning polar bear and be good for something the worthless sack of shit that is Sarah Palin.