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Scientists Formulate New Method To Create Low-Cost High Efficiency Solar Cells (phys.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Scientists from the Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) believe they've found a winning formula in a new method to fabricate low-cost high-efficiency solar cells. Prof. Yabing Qi and his team from OIST in collaboration with Prof. Shengzhong Liu from Shaanxi Normal University, China, developed the cells using the materials and compounds that mimic the crystalline structure of the naturally occurring mineral perovskite. They describe their technique in a study published in the journal Nature Communications. Perovskite offers a more affordable solution, Prof. Qi says. Perovskite was first used to make solar cells in 2009 by Prof. Tsutomu Miyasaka's research team at Toin University of Yokohama, Japan, and since then it has been rapidly gaining importance. The fabrication method he and his research team have developed produces perovskite solar cells with an efficiency comparable to crystalline silicon cells, but it is potentially much cheaper than making silicon solar cells.
To make the new cells, the researchers coated transparent conductive substrates with perovskite films that absorb sunlight very efficiently. They used a gas-solid reaction-based technique in which the substrate is first coated with a layer of hydrogen lead triiodide incorporated with a small amount of chlorine ions and methylamine gas -- allowing them to reproducibly make large uniform panels, each consisting of multiple solar cells. In developing the method, the scientists realized that making the perovskite layer 1 micron thick increased the working life of the solar cell significantly. In addition, a thicker coating not only boosted the stability of the solar cells but also facilitated the fabrication processes, thereby lowering its production costs. The team is now working on increasing the size of their newly designed solar cell prototype to large commercial-sized panels that can be several feet long. They have reportedly built a working model of their new perovskite solar modules, thanks to funding from OIST's Technology Development and Innovation Center, but "the process of upscaing has reduced the efficiency of the cells from 20% to 15%," reports Phys.Org. "[T]he researchers are optimistic that they will be able to improve the way they work in the coming years and successfully commercialize their use."
To make the new cells, the researchers coated transparent conductive substrates with perovskite films that absorb sunlight very efficiently. They used a gas-solid reaction-based technique in which the substrate is first coated with a layer of hydrogen lead triiodide incorporated with a small amount of chlorine ions and methylamine gas -- allowing them to reproducibly make large uniform panels, each consisting of multiple solar cells. In developing the method, the scientists realized that making the perovskite layer 1 micron thick increased the working life of the solar cell significantly. In addition, a thicker coating not only boosted the stability of the solar cells but also facilitated the fabrication processes, thereby lowering its production costs. The team is now working on increasing the size of their newly designed solar cell prototype to large commercial-sized panels that can be several feet long. They have reportedly built a working model of their new perovskite solar modules, thanks to funding from OIST's Technology Development and Innovation Center, but "the process of upscaing has reduced the efficiency of the cells from 20% to 15%," reports Phys.Org. "[T]he researchers are optimistic that they will be able to improve the way they work in the coming years and successfully commercialize their use."
the substrate is first coated with a layer of hydrogen lead triiodide incorporated with a small amount of chlorine ions and methylamine gas
Great, now smurfs will be stealing solar cells so they can be used in methamphetamine production.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
Like that's their job or something
Actually, the Republicans will love it and want to invest. After all, increased solar output is responsible for global warming, and that makes this a great investment.
was not pulling out, if I did you wouldnâ(TM)t exist
In developing the method, the scientists realized that making the perovskite layer 1 micron thick increased the working life of the solar cell significantly.
Typical good quality crystalline silicon solar cells lose as much as 1% per year in efficiency, and lose as much as 15% efficiency in the first few months of deployment. This is why a 100 watt panel will typically produce as much as 120 watts for the first month or so, then taper off to 100 watts, then degrade slowly thereafter. This is one of the reason that to meet code, wiring for a solar installation must exceed the specs of the panels by around 20%. Now, my apologies if this isn't perfectly accurate, I've been intentionally hand-wavy as I've been out of the PV world for a bit.
Amorphous silicon is much, much worse, as it degrades as much as 10% per year, until they become opaque sheets of glass. This is why cheep Harbor Freight solar panels are cheap. Soon, they'll be just colored glass.
The manufacturing technique described in this article is similar to that of amorphous silicon, and the quoted sentence above glosses over a lot of ifs in the article. Still, I hope these researchers succeed.
Even if they don't, traditional silicon solar and some CdTe technologies are already at grid parity, so the current state of the art can already economically offset burning stuff to keep the lights on, or charge the electric car.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
I thought the big issue with using perovskite in solar panels is useful life.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
"But will it make us more money?"...why, yes. Just buy this monorail and your city will prosper...
I'll wait until the research comes in.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Waiting for prices to fall before pushing solar energy, as he inevitably will!
The sun is not a reliable source of energy. The sun goes down every night, right when demand peaks, and then clouds can come in at any time to reduce output during the day. Addressing this with storage solutions costs money, which means solar power will be expensive even if the solar collectors themselves are cheap.
Energy storage solutions alone will not save solar power because such storage doesn't care if it is charged from solar power or anything else. Natural gas is a cheap source of energy, and natural gas boilers are a cheap and efficient way to turn that into electricity. The problem with boilers (natural gas, coal, or nuclear) is that they like to run at a nice and steady pace for best efficiency. Pair a boiler with storage and you get reliable power that can follow the changes in load throughout the day.
Cheap and efficient energy storage could in fact kill solar power, it just would not be able to compete with far more reliable energy sources to charge them up. I'm not sure even if solar power were free that it could compete because the demands for storage would still price it out of existence.
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to add solar cells to cheap asphalt tiles and still keep them cheap.
Natural gas only appears cheap to those who fail to account for the damage caused by CO2 emissions and methane leakage.
"This new technology alongside the Tesla Powerbank and the Tesla car in my basement are sure to disrupt and revolutionize transportation industry."
You're doing it wrong.
The powerbank belongs in the basement, the car in the garage.
But good news, you're right, the solar singles go on the roof.
are a cheap and efficient way to turn that into electricity.
At grid scale, yes. At residential scale, not so much.
Energy storage solutions alone will not save solar power because such storage doesn't care if it is charged from solar power or anything else.
But the cost of getting the energy to the storage must be included.
Solar pa
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
(Lenovo's touchpad hits "[Submit]" once again...)
Energy storage solutions alone will not save solar power because such storage doesn't care if it is charged from solar power or anything else.
But the cost of getting the energy to the storage must be included.
Large fuel-powered steam generation plants and their distribution networks have had a century of intense engineering and are currently nibbling away at the last slivers of inefficiency between their current state and theoretical limits, such as the Carnot cycle and conservation of energy. Any nontrivial cost-of-power improvements there will come from fuel prices and construction/operation cost improvements. Solar photovoltaic is primarily a semiconductor technology and is still following its own version of Moore's Law, with intermittent breakthroughs (like some announced here recently) combining into a rapid improvement in manufacturing cost-per-watt and with some pad left between current efficiency and theoretical limits.
At a good solar site, as of a couple years ago, using current moderately-OK storage, photovoltaic power was cheaper than grid power by a factor of three or better before the recent anti-dumping tariffs With the tariffs in place it's still better and by a factor of about 1.5. Add in improved storage and/or continued improvement of panels, and grid, which has already fallen behind, gets left in the dust. This doesn't kill it, but it does leave it powering mostly sites that don't have good solar resources, require larger amounts of power than is available from the sun on the site's building roofing, where capital isn't available for installing the solar equipment, or serving as a backup/peaking supply.
Solar doesn't need "saving" from natural gas. To a large extent it's the other way around.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I have to point out that perovskites have been the hot research topic for low-cost solar cells for several years now. It's nice that slashdot suddenly noticed them, but mentioning one research group, while ignoring a hundred other research groups working on perovskite solar cells, is a little misleading.
For more information, here are 33,000 papers to read: https://scholar.google.com/sch...
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
The good news is that the sun's unreliability is reliably predictable. We know when it goes over the horizon to the minute. Massive day-long storms don't just sneak up on us because of 1950s technology called "weather radar"
Nice FUD though. Grade A over-simplification and extra marks for completely overlooking the fact that natural gas peaking plants that use turbines instead of boilers exist.
Anti-solar FUD from an AC. What else is new?
It is a thankless task perhaps to take on anonymous BS, the logical fail here is notable.
Cheap and efficient energy storage could in fact kill solar power, it just would not be able to compete with far more reliable energy sources to charge them up. I'm not sure even if solar power were free that it could compete because the demands for storage would still price it out of existence.
Wow. Cheap efficient energy storage will kill even free solar energy by pricing it out of existence. Who knew?
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age