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MIT Researchers Printing Solar Cells On Fold-able Sheets
An anonymous reader writes "Following up on earlier work in the field, researchers at MIT are developing a process to print solar cells directly onto many common forms of paper. 'The technique represents a major departure from the systems used until now to create most solar cells, which require exposing the substrates to potentially damaging conditions, either in the form of liquids or high temperatures. The new printing process uses vapors, not liquids, and temperatures less than 120 degrees Celsius. These "gentle" conditions make it possible to use ordinary untreated paper, cloth or plastic as the substrate on which the solar cells can be printed. ... The resilient solar cells still function even when folded up into a paper airplane.'"
Now mass-produce that shit and stick it on all skyward surfaces already, how fucking hard is it?
I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!
the dirty tricks that the printer manufacturers play now are bad. What will happen when your printer's solar cell cartridge runs low?
...yet what do we have to show for it? A dramatic decrease in solar panel prices? no. A dramatic increase in solar cell efficiency? no. A dramatic increase in solar cell durability? no.
These are all media-whorings and promisemongerings (not necessarily by the researchers themselves, but by Science Reporting in general), probably in an attempt to get more funding and interest into the solar industry. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but eventually this type of thing can blow up in your face, if the general public gets sick of the empty promises.
The public are already sick of the promises. Mainstream media should ignore anything not ready for sale. It's useless information except to scientists.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Very low efficiency, currently at 1% un-optimised, but potentially as cheep as crisp packets , tough and very very light... Might be good for providing night lighting or power to low wattage diagnostic equipment for places like refugee camps especially if you can get the efficiency up, remember light bulbs are surprisingly less bright than the sun so, with LEDs this should work even at its current efficiency.
I've been reading about "printed" solar cells
for 10 years I think. Will they be in production
by 2099 ? What is the cost to produce NOW?
( per KW per surface area )
More important, what patents does MIT have and
will they release the patents to the public if the research
was done at public expense --- or more probably
paid for by other subsidized research?
It's useless information except to scientists.
So let's see what kind of website are we on, here? Does "News for nerds" ring a bell?
The company that commercializes this tech will quickly fold.
but I approve of this message.
Photovoltaic paint FTW! If only it weren't operating on the same deployment timeline as flying cars and strong AI.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
From my limited experience as a researcher it takes about 20 years +/-5 to get from genuinely interesting early test systems (animal models for drugs lab only prototypes etc.) to useful products, although this is hurt somewhat by the media hyping some things well before the researchers themselves consider the results interesting.
A Solar Powered Paper Airplane!
Tape a pager-motor with a small propeller onto it and you've got a paper airplane that can circumnavigate the globe !
How cool would that be?
-S
Nobody knows how to fold those things.
Every week some genius solves the energy crisis. Call me when one is actually put into use.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
The resilient solar cells still function even when folded up into a paper airplane
Cool. So fold me an airplane and I'll attach an electric motor. It should have no problem flying. Right?
Life is not for the lazy.
WARE. Prove me wrong by mass production at the amazing cost i've heard about for years, or just burn in hell.
After reading the article it doesn't sound like this technology is far off as the process sounds similar to things that are already done on an industrial scale. Yes it requires a vacuum chamber, but the ability to deposit the various materials is the same process that is done to deposit the shiny lining on the inside of plastic bags. Also it uses masks to lay the materials down in the correct locations which to me sounds similar to what is done in the semiconductor industry with photo-lithography. Also it doesn't sound like this uses high heat, caustic chemicals, or expensive lenses. So the usual 5-10 years before it comes to market (i.e. we will never see it) doesn't seem to be an issue. Currently the downfall of this tech sounds like its poor efficiency being only around 1% but even that shouldn't be a problem as I mentioned in an older post that 1% of the earth covered with 1% efficient solar cells would meet all of our current energy needs as we receive about 4 orders of magnitude more energy from the sun a day than we use. I didn't see what materials this requires other than the paper substrate so that may also be a limiting factor.
Time to offend someone
WARE. Prove me wrong by mass production at the amazing cost i've heard about for years, or just burn in hell.
Fuck you. Who cares if it's never marketed as a practical product?
Sometimes, scientific progress is just plain cool even if when doesn't show up on the shelves of your local Wal-mart in six months.
News for fags.
From 2007:
"GE Engineer Sees Competitive Photovoltaics In Under 10 Years"
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004702.html
"A high ranking engineer at General Electric says in some parts of the United States photovoltaics will become cost competitive by 2015."
From this year (2011):
"Report: GE says fossil fuels, nuclear soon costlier than solar power"
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/report-ge-says-fossil-fuels-nuclear-soon-costlier-than-solar-power/6686
And:
http://gweedopig.com/index.php/2011/04/08/ge-bets-600-million-on-2015-solar-plant/
"General Electric Co made a big push in solar power, saying it will invest $600 million to build a new factory as it pursues what it thinks could be an up to $3 billion business by 2015. The largest U.S. conglomerate, which over the last decade has made itself a leader in renewable energy, said it has designed a thin-film solar panel that converts sunlight to electricity more efficiently than rival products today. The move is likely to ramp up already intense price competition, particularly for First Solar Inc, which uses the same thin-film technology as GE has focused on."
It is happening... Not the same as printing, but that will come too most likely...
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
imagine if you had a solar cell printer on thingiverse!
So let's see what kind of website are we on, here? Does "News for nerds" ring a bell?
Yeah, I vaguely recall something like that 5 or so years ago.
...what do we have to show for it? A dramatic decrease in solar panel prices?
Whatever the reason, we have seen a "dramatic decrease in solar panel prices" recently.
Five years ago the best you'd hope for was around $10 per watt, but now it's around $2 or so, and likely to decrease even more.
It's getting really hard to use the "high prices" as an excuse for not going solar.
Iowa Thin Films has been doing this a long time.
and where will the print them when the office/world goes paperless?
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Anything that can print can print with this ink.
It is not like it takes you 10 years to understand this. Or does it?