Purple Pokeberries Yield Cheap Solar Power

separsons writes "Researchers at Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials created a low-cost solar power system geared towards developing nations. By coating fiber-based solar cells with dye from purple pokeberries, a common weed, scientists created a cheap yet highly efficient solar system. Wake Forest researchers and their accompanying company, FiberCell Inc., have filed for a patent for fiber-based solar. Plastic sheets are stamped with plastic fibers, creating millions of tiny 'cans' that trap light until it is absorbed. The fibers create a huge surface area, meaning sunlight can be collected at any angle from the time the sun rises until it sets. Coating the system with pokeberry dye creates even greater absorption: researchers say the system can produce twice as much power as traditional flat-cell technology."

Comments

Pokeberry's weed status is endangered

[Anonymous Coward]

Weeds are only weeds because we don't want them. If this solar technology takes off, the Pokeberry will cease to be a weed. Horrors!

Unobtainium Still Required

[Black Gold Alchemist]

This page indicates that indium tin oxide is still used in the solar panel. Indium has got to be removed because it is an extremely expensive, worth over $500/kg, and it is rare and unsustainable. It's used to make transparent conductors. If we could make some kind of plastic as a transparent conductor, that would be helpful.

Or we could skip the solar panels and build a steam engine.

Re:Still need nuclear

[TheMeuge]

Total world energy consumption ~ 1.5 terawatts.

At 1.5x10^13 / 1.1x10^3 = 1.4e10 m^2

= 1.4e4 km^2... or roughly a patch of land just 116km x 116km.

So assuming the unachievable 100% capture, we could generate all the power we need in the world by covering the state of Connecticut with magic solar panels.

I totally support the idea of clean nuclear power, but let's get our figures straight.